The Will of Kingdom Hearts
by Mikenno
Summary: When Sora is kidnapped, a year passes, and Riku finds the door he went through again. Awakened and in a new world, Riku sets out to find Sora. But why can he summon a keyblade is he's not the master? And where's Sora? Sora x Riku, Ch. 11, May. 14
1. It was December

This was randomly inspired by an RP my girlfriend and I have concocted long ago. I suppose you could just say it's an AU Slash fic on a different version of Kingdom Hearts. I have a good feeling about this. XD Albeit scary as well.

Here we go.

* * *

It was December. 

_RIKU!_

I remember it clearly. Serenely. Perfectly.

_Sora! SORA!_

If only it were as optimistic of a time as the words I used to describe it.

_Riku..._

Even as I curl my hands up to talk about it, gesture to each spoken expression in a precise manner as if it were merely casual conversation, I still can feel my throat clench.

_Let him go! STOP!_

Because that was the day I lost him.

_Sor - Agh!_

That was a day that I could _never_ forget.

_Thud_

_

* * *

_

The day had started out rather plain, as most days do. You wake up, maybe get a bite to eat, dress, and go do what you have to do that day. Or maybe nothing at all has to get done so you take that opportunity to enjoy a day of pristine relaxation. Very rare indeed. If you live a care-free life, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. That's alright. If you continue to listen to my story, you'll understand. Maybe.

I got dressed. My attire wasn't out of the ordinary. If anything I blended in pretty well. My silver hair, a color most unnatural for my age (Unless I'm albino, of course, which I am not.), was probably another story but I set it off with distracting clothes so it all broke even in the end. That particular day I had decided on a pair of camo-khakis, a warm, marine-emerald hoodie, and black boots to trample through the snow and get to my destination in one piece. A silver ring in my ear, blends of gold and silver-colored steel swirling around my neck like licorice, half a crown hanging off from it.

Anyone who knew Sora would recognize the crown immediately. Or at least the half I beared on that chain. A chain I never removed since the day I loaded it up on my neck. You see, Sora and I realized what we thought we had to find in this world was a reason to live. We were half right. Life itself is a reason to live. It lies under the simple fact you only have one of it. It's the only thing that everyone in the world has in common and the only thing in the world that anyone can just as easily take away. Every part of the being is fragile. The most fragile being the mind. When the mind is driven with the knowledge of pain and suffering, the heart grows weak. When the heart releases, the spirit is defeated.

The trick to surviving is to find someone to live your life with. A friend, a pet, family, a lover. Life is a beautful thing to have but a shame to not share. Life does not blossom until you've allowed someone else to try it on with you. We realized that when one heart begins to waver, the other's will be there to guide it back again. Sora and I found this without words. We found it silently within each other and nothing was done of it until Sora finally said, "Let's find a jeweler."

The same day we had the crown Sora always wore seperated and it became similar to those half-heart necklaces you'll see young girls wearing every now and then. Upon request, Sora's half got an R and mine got an S. And upon selective reflection, Sora looked wonderful that day. He seemed much younger than he normally had. I envied that face. Mine is so mature and serious that I'd swear I was born with the personality of a bitter old man. But _never _Sora. His was too busy flashing goofy smiles at everything he graced past to think of anything damaging enough to the spirit. Sora was pure. His heart was an untappered goldmine of ignorant bliss. I still wonder if people thinked the same things I often did.

Don't mistaken the seperation of the crown, the carving of initials, and the way I amplify every good feature about him. We weren't in love. Far from it. While people would think a deep-in-your-veins-burning friendship is well close enough, it never is. Never will be. It's not even _half a world_ close. Despite this, Sora meant everything to me. I wanted to protect him. He wanted to protect me. No words could begin to describe the face I'd make when I'd look at him in his eyes. An ocean of life, sparkles of small fish bursting from the roof tops of their home with every embarrassed laugh or designated Sora smile. The boy had his own definition of _smile_.

We found ourselves staring out over the ocean. Kairi had gone home, as she was getting sick with a cold and didn't need to be near the water to stare at an island we couldn't get to. It made her more miserable and Selphie dragged her home before she killed herself with pneumonia. I was warm, as I had planned to be when I got dressed that morning, and Sora seemed partially offguard. Which was strange for him, considering he had a fuzzy white scarf on that his mother had knitted for him long ago to top off the long, bubble-red coat that sunk below his knees. It was almost ridiculous for him to be freezing. He must've had another pair of pants on under the baggy black jeans.

"The snow's kind of harsh today," Sora commented moreso to himself than his only company. I nodded, my silent agreements not even looked at anymore. Sora seemed to always know what I was feeling. Not that we felt the same way about everything but he knew. I know he did.

"I kind of wanted to go to the cave again," I said just to join the small talk. It was the only reason between us to even bother going over there this time of year. The statement was unnecessary but it was an oblidging gesture for conversation. "Kairi didn't see it, right?"

"Right," Sora replied quickly. "Maybe we should go anyway? I don't think the water - "

"We shouldn't risk our lives over something we probably _thought_ we saw," I answered to quickly deny the request. "Are you really that dense?"

I laughed to see Sora's cheeks puff up like a threatened blowfish. I laughed even more to see him narrow his eyes in offense to the previous laugh. He wasn't helping me stop. When his soft cheeks fluffed back down, the red hue of his skin blared even moreso, thanks to his flesh stretching and the blasting cold air of the unforgiving sea decorating his face like a porcelain doll's. The wind caught his wild brown hair, blowing locks against his young face and giving him such a dramatic effect. It was lovely.

"I know I saw it," Sora sighed. "I saw a door."

Now this island was just an island we played on the majority of our summers. We had started to build a raft to sail off and find new worlds. You know, things kids are supposed to do. Great adventures, defeating evil, saving the princess? Precisely. But to see something as outlandish as a _door_ inside a _cave_ is just absurd. At least that's what I would've thought until I swore I had seen it, too. Then doubt and inquiry came to mind and that was that. However I wasn't about to throw myself at an endless ocean to get to a normally easily accesible island on a solid winter day that wanted to kill anything it came across. That just wasn't going down.

But Sora's will was relentless. I could see it in his deprived eyes that he was going to go with or without me. Better with than without, I suppose. I just swallowed anything I had to say about it and silently followed Sora as he made preparations to sail out.

The ride there was enigmatic. Normally we'd make some sort of verbal exchange, even a glance would've sufficed, but not today. Sora's determination was in stone and it was a hard stone to crack. But why it would cause Sora to suddenly cave in and fall silent was a good question. One I don't think even he could answer. Was he trying with all his might to use his unexplainable mind powers to make sure that door knew we weren't coming? Enter with stealth and catch it offguard so it doesn't disappear before we can pry it open. With Sora's personality and mind frame, I wouldn't doubt that train of thought for a second.

The arrival was just as obscure as the departure. For once I could not tell for the life of me what was on Sora's mind. In fact, his eyes looked rather blank and distant. I had never seen the boy concentrate so sincerely on something. Was the door, which was probably a hallucination, really that big a deal? Well, I wasn't allowed to argue with him. I was just there to make sure he didn't hurt himself trying to punch the wall open.

We climbed our ramps, jumped over ledges, swung on vines and dashed downward toward Hell. Well, the cave. Sora squeezed himself through carefully and I followed solemnly silent as ever. I kept forgetting we were growing up and the cave was bound to start feeling smaller than it used to. I just felt it moreso now than ever before. I gave it a quick glance before grabbing Sora's arm.

"It's not here," I hoped he'd believe me before he even bothered. "Let's go back."

"Riku..." Sora's voice floated upward. It was soft, surprised. My hunched shoulders forced my head to swing back toward him and give him my undivided attention.That included ignoring the annoyed ranting that took place in the deep, dark corner in the back of my head. "Look."

To be blunt, I nearly crapped myself at the sight that lied before me. It was a pink door with a white frame, intricately designed to give it some sense of style. Bad place for it, here in this _cave!_, I thought. I couldn't believe it. The door was right there. This apparition had taken it's time to say hello again just for a good laugh. I let go of Sora's arm and we stood side by side, neither of his making any move to get closer to it. It may have had rabies.

"So," I started, keeping my eyes on it in fear that blinking might've allowed it to go somewhere. "There's your door. Go open it."

Sora leaned closed to me and began effortlessly shoving his arm into mine, trying to push me forward to do it for him. He must've been out of his damned mind that day. "You go do it. You're braver than I am."

"Since when?" I now gave my attention to him again, which he didn't seem to want anymore as he was trying to avoid looking back. "What happened to all those speeches about you being a great hero, you jerk?" Sora growled in reply. It was a sheepish subject to try and use against him. We had said some extreme things in much earlier days.

Sora, with a frustrated breath, caved into it anyway. The moment he took a step forward the door quickly camoflauged back into the cave wall. Sora dove forward the second he saw it starting to fade but wasn't able to grab it. "Damn!" He snorted and hit the wall with his fist in revenge. I chuckled a little at his futile efforts to catch the leaping frog but I was terribly nervous - for good reason! A door appearing in a cave out on an island that was inhabited by who knows what before we came and made it a play place? What was I supposed to think; It was routine for nature to do this?

"Forget it, Sora," I said annoyingly. He was too hell bent on this illusion toying with us to actually listen to my words anyway, let alone the tone of my voice, so I didn't feel so mean. "It'll never - " I spun to leave but that was when...

"_RIKU!_" Sora cried out. I turned to see dark-misted figures curling their limbs around Sora, ripping at his neck and clothes to keep him in their bind as tightly as they could.

"Sora!" I started to run forward but it was then I found myself in the same being's grasp, unable to tear myself away from it's brute strength. "SORA!" Instantly, I saw something that threatened the support beams of my heart. A quick snap and I saw Sora's eyes blankly widen. For a second I thought they had broken his neck. That was it. Sora had just been murdered right before my eyes and there wasn't anything I could do to save him now. Luckily, that had not been the case.

"_Riku..."_ Sora whispered, the shadow's needle-thin finger nail jammed through his neck like a pin cushion. Well, his head hadn't been twisted off but that certainly wasn't any better in this situation.

"Let him go! _STOP_!" I struggled toward freedom, Sora my goal. I had to save him but the locks of charcoal mist that had me held down wasn't letting me go anywhere. I couldn't even budge arms - my feet weren't functioning. I strained my muscles till I could feel them tearing beneath my skin, burning with the intensity I had to try and keep them from hurting him anymore.

Sora passed out when he tore his nail out and the mysterious door suddenly appeared behind them. I heard distorted whispers between the two shadows and, for a moment, I swore I heard them say:

" _Sora is the only one we need_."

Might've just been the delusional state I found myself in when I concluded I was completely helpless. "Sor - Agh!" The rest was a blur. The painful bite to my neck, or so it felt like one, vibrated and rattled my brain before I could make any hypothesis on what was going on. My body slammed into the floor with a hard i thud /i before I fell unconcious. It was a frozen sleep, save for Sora's scarf resting beneath the palm of my hand. All that was left of my dear friend.


	2. Traverse Town

Yay! Second chapter. I get to write about Cid! Yay! (Favorite FFVII character!) Lots of Yaying going on! Yay!

I kind of do some problem solving with how to deal with Kairi and I'm happy to say I found a way to get Riku to be able to travel around. Sort of...the same, though. Anyway, you can read about it. I hope this chapter isn't too boring. I tried to use Cid to liven up the tense atmosphere it has.

I guess Riku's attitude and way of speaking changes a bit as it goes along. Probably because things get considerably happier later on. But you know... What comes up!

Worlds, here we come!

* * *

**Traverse Town**

A year had past; a whole year of me practically living on that island as I salvaged what I could in information to get Sora back. I had destroyed nearly all the pictures drawn on the cave walls in an effort to maybe dig the door out, which I think was just anger trying to release itself before I exploded. I knew it wouldn't work, after all. Everyday, all day, sometimes all night I would conceal myself in that realm of pain, trying to set him free.

At times I would lie crying on the cave floor in doubt. What if Sora had been killed already? What if all my efforts were futile and I would never see him again? What if Sora found himself happier in this other place? What if he actually didn't _want to_ come back? I came up with so many hypothesis's that I started to go to the cave and just sit there day in and day out. Waiting. Quietly. Maybe Dooru would come back and laugh at me again. I named him Dooru. He was my pet project of sorts. I hadn't seen Dooru since Sora was taken away, though.

But then a morning that felt like every other morning rose into the sky. I was on the beach, ready to head out. Kairi and Selphie stood behind me, watching me like a caged monkey trying to escape. They were dressed and ready for school. I hadn't seen homework in months.

"Riku," Kairi started. Every morning she said the same thing and every morning she got the same answer. It was beginning to get annoying and my replies were all programmed into my brain. I might've felt better about it if we tried doing the routine in, say, German.

'Why don't you give up, Riku? Sora's gone. He just isn't coming back.' Every morning I would hear her weakened will jabber about my everyday endeavors and their ultimate failures. One just wanted to turn around and throw a rock at her face. I love Kairi. Honestly. Day by day, however, since she quickly gave up on Sora ever returning, she was losing Love Points. I was at the stage where the saying "You don't have to like someone to love them" was as sincere as the sky is blue.

"I give up." I almost replied to her with the usual, 'Because Sora wouldn't want me to give up if there's hope.' It took me a moment of thought and the ability to be a sponge again to absorb the words she had just spoken. I turned toward her as she continued. "Everyday I watch you sail out there and come back empty-handed and I'm getting tired of watching it." I gave her a look like I honestly didn't care. Well...I _didn't_ care. "Tomorrow I'll take another route to school. I don't want to see you anymore until you give up."

Did she expect anything other than the hurtful answer she received? I was sitting in the cave, thinking about her tear-filled eyes and angry glare and it didn't affect me whatsoever. If she wanted to leave Sora to the shadow sharks, that's fine. I wasn't about to do the same thing. I clutched the crown hanging from my neck, the only piece of Sora I had left. Well, and the scarf I wore everyday, no matter the temperature. I was sorry to Kairi, though. But I don't think she ever knew that.

"_Then I guess I'll never see you again._"

Irony decided that he was particularly bored that day as well. I planned the 24 hours to be another day of sitting and waiting in silence, letting memories and ghosts haunt me of my times with Sora. I could occasionally see us drawing on the wall with Kairi, or when she bashfully drew herself and Sora drew himself giving her a Paopu fruit. I don't think they knew I was there that time but I was watching from the dark. When I consider it now, that's very stalker-like, isn't it? What did we know then anyway?

I began to lean back against the cave wall to relax but something of great definition was strange about the texture behind me. As I leaned further and further into it, I hadn't pinned the exact difference as of yet. I had sat in that spot before. I don't think the wall had mutated any since the previous day and I'm almost sure I'd overcome that impaling phase of my loss. Maybe I had sat further away from it than the norm and the extra space behind me was confusing my senses. I still can't believe it took me being flat on my back and hanging off what looked like a cliff of eternal light to realize that I had just leaned back into Dooru.

I was blinded, to say the least, by the beautiful radiance of the world that lied beyond the very door I had hated for a long, cruel year. I refused to sit up, fear of it snapping shut behind me overtaking the essence of my heart. If I had lost Dooru again, I would've surely had gone insane and probably have drowned myself in the sea. I figured, what the Hell, and I slid myself further into the door until gravity took care of the rest.

I closed my eyes and the first thought was to prepare for death. I may just as well had been falling to my doom, even in such a warm, encircling light. It was gentle with me as I soared downward toward what I hoped to be Sora or at least answers that would lead me to him. I could feel my heart fluttering in my chest, my body in a fitful tingling sensation. I was going in circles, each spiral a question of the faith I had in the wings that carried me away. How long had I been falling? I felt more like I was flying in the air after awhile, no longer supported but taking care of myself with my very own feathers, swirling like water from my shoulder blades. I was convinced on the last spiral...that this was indeed a cruel dream that would end in disappointment and probably me taking my life for having my hopes so torturingly pushed.

When I woke up, I couldn't open my eyes. I was too afraid to find myself back in the cave, still one less Sora in my possession and no reason to properly move on. It had to be Sora. I wanted Sora to be the friend I could spend a lifetime with. Even if I got married and had kids, I would want Sora with me. By me at all times. I'd make him live with me, I swear I would. Heh...Uncle Sora?

It took a long time to convince myself that maybe I wasn't in the cave anymore and to open my eyes and take a good look around. Not that it was actually my own doing that got me to see what was around me. No, it was the cold, wet squishy item that shoved itself right into my ear. My first reaction was to yelp as a shocking ice chill ran down my spine from the impression. I jerked myself into an upright position and opened my eyes. I almost screamed like a school girl.

I wasn't scared but terribly excited! Maybe a little _too_ excited but nevertheless! I got to my feet and let my emerald eyes take control of the situation. Dark atmosphere but buildings of color that rose up in glory on several levels. A clock tower in the distance and what seemed to be a shopping area right up front. Off to my side was a café and a few people to complete it's moody but therapeutic demeanor. I was in a town and I was damned glad to be completely lost in a new place.

I looked down when I heard a soft huff, as if something was agitated. My eyes landed on a long, yellow creature with perky thin black ears and a pointed tail wagging behind him. He barked and jumped, green collar spinning around his thin neck. I'm pretty sure it was a dog.

"Ah," I looked at his cute black nose and smiled. "You must be what was buggin' me just a second ago." He barked again, jumped, and ran off, my guess being that was his way of saying goodbye. I must not had been very interesting.

I had broken it down to three decisions in my situation. I could either: A. Meander aimlessly around the town, B. Go bug people at the café, or C. Follow the weird yellow dog. Well, since I didn't know where I was, and it was likely the people at the café were trying to relax and _not_ be bothered, the dog was my best shot. He had a collar, after all, so he could have just been running home to his master. With a small debate and a shove of reassurance, I trailed after the canine.

Much to my discouragement I discovered very quickly he must've been a stray. I found myself practically in an alley and he jumped over a ledge and onto some boxes, running off elsewhere before I could see. Disheartened, I decided the best way to find out where I had crashed was to start asking. I walked up to the first door I saw and knocked gingerly.

It swung open like a baseball bat trying to hit a home run, a tall, robust, blonde man with a scruffy face and a dented cigarette perched on his lips standing there to greet me. He wasn't very housewarming and I suddenly feared for my life. He chewed on the end of his cigarette, probably because he was getting annoyed with the little boy just standing there and gawking at him like a circus clown.

"Who the Hell are you?" He growled. I quivered at the intensity he pushed off so quickly. I was about to run away when I realized a man like this may actually have been helpful. He was covered with grease stains and a tool belt was hanging onto his hips. His cotton white shirt had holes torn through them, albeit small but still enough to see the dark flesh beneath. He looked like a mechanic, a much older one, who actually looked rather wise in his years. He began to shift impatiently and was ready to swing the door shut.

"I'm Ri - !" The door slammed closed. "Ku. Wait!" I began banging on the door but to no avail. He wasn't going to answer again. It was understandable to want to keep me away, considering I had just disturbed him to merely stare at his figure. Freaky kid, he must've been thinking. I turned away, ready to walk off, but I found myself clutching onto my pendant. Sora's crown. I could recall the powerful face Sora had when we were sailing to the island, so determined and strong, ready to face an unknown world without a second whim on it.

It hurt to consider how Sora would handle a situation like this. He was so reckless but that's what made him so attractive. His innocent nature just caught people's attention, even if it got him and everyone else into trouble. I decided that even though I was one of the people attracted to that nature, not of it, that in order to get back to the one I had loved that feature in I was going to have to try and think a little more like him. I went back to the door and knocked on it again. The time it took for me to reallocate my feelings properly, the man must've thought it was someone else. He opened the door again and looked fit to be tied.

"What now!" He snapped. He was completely prepared to lock me out again if I had another staring contest with him but I spoke up before he could do anything more.

"I'm Riku," I started but couldn't finish immediately.

"I don't know any Riku." The man snarled.

"No! I don't know any... you, either! I just need a little help, that's all."

"I don't have any munny to give."

"I don't want money."

"Then what the Hell do you want!"

"Where am I!"

"TRAVERSE TOWN!"

"OKAY!"

He slammed the door shut. It took a moment of trying to pull my fleeting soul back into my body and down my throat to realize that I didn't learn anything except the town's name. Traverse Town? I've never even heard of such a place. It was bewildering since I couldn't imagine it to be in any country anywhere. It looked too... unreal. I knocked again and heard something break inside. The door flung open and I began to ramble out everything I could think of before he killed me with whatever he happened to have nearby. Probably the wrench on his belt.

"I'm lost! I fell through a doorway of light and landed here and I have no idea where I am! I just want to get out of here and find Sora but I have no one to help me!" I took a cowardly step back and he leaned closer to make up for it.

"You really aren't looking for munny?" I snarled my answer and he seemed satisfied with that. "Hm. Well, you just look like a stupid kid but come inside." Finally, I thought. I walked in once he took his large form away from the doorway and I was rather enchanted to find a very warm home greeting me. A cozy fireplace, a big, plumpy red chair to relax in, and a kitchen area that gave an aura of great home-cooked meals having been concocted within. It was everything he was working on off to the right that slaughtered the atmosphere.

Oil, tools, a long, metal working table. Papers and pens everywhere, photos hanging off strings as if in a red room in a photo center. A red light was swinging from the ceiling to top that image off as well. The two sides of the building were completely different, a split personality of housing, you could say. It made me terribly, terribly nervous. More so than I already was.

"I'm Cid," He suddenly had introduced himself out of the blue, nearly giving me a heart attack when his loud voice boomed it out. If anything could shed the lives off a cat, this man could by simply speaking. "Where ya from?"

"Destiny Islands..." I was a bit flustered to say my home's name. In a place such as this with seemingly no water anywhere in sight, it sounded ridiculous. Where would an island be in this vicinity?

"Another world?" Cid asked. My heart slammed into the front of my chest. What did he just ask me, I thought wildly, searching for an answer at the same time. The prospect of being in another world had never even occurred to me. It was entirely different, after all, but... I realized logic couldn't solve my problems now. I fell through a door of light and _flew_ to Traverse Town without even knowing it. Logic was but a distant dream.

"Not sure," I tried. "I was hoping you could tell me." Cid gave me the look of Satan himself. I didn't know the answer! I couldn't help it! I had already said I was lost and he was throwing a fit. What a bastard, I kept telling myself.

"Really are a..." He suddenly fell silent as his eyes landed on what seemed to be just below my face. My first thought was my life was in an immediate threat: Cid was about to ring my neck. I tossed myself up against the wall when he reached his giant hand out for my throat. I couldn't get away. I thought for sure he was going to kill me and this would be the end of everything I had been working for. I survived the fall from the door of Light and now this! It was terrifying, to be in such a new place with such a fearsome man.

"I've seen this necklace before," Came a curious tone of voice. My eyes snapped open to see Cid investigating the pendant on my chain. "At least this thing 'ere, anyway." He stood up straight, half the crown in his palm, and rested his fingers on his chin in deep study. A glow in his eyes and a smile advertised his recognition. "Yeah! Another kid was wearin' this a long time ago. He fell in this 'ere town, too."

I immediately knew it was Sora. He fell into Traverse Town with a half crown pendant on his neck? It couldn't be coincidence. I knew it couldn't be.

"Was he a brown-haired kid named Sora?" I quickly asked, practically begging for an answer. Cid gave a queer look and nodded.

"He was a brunette kid but I dunno 'bout his name or nothin'," Cid walked over to his chair and flopped into it with a loud poof. The chair groaned as he made himself comfortable. "But now that I think 'bout it..." Cid sat and thought about it. The suspense had me hanging by my toes; I thought I was going to die just from impatience with an old geezer's memory. My throat was retching with whimpers and screams, holding them down and keeping them low. He bounced his head a couple times and then proceeded on. "Yeah. He asked me if I saw a kid with silver hair and a - " He jerked a finger in attention toward my chain. I put it into my own hand and evaluated it as if I had never seen it before in my life. "Riku, ya said?"

"Yes," I answered, my voice unable to uplift past the whisper of trees. I could feel my cheeks tightening, my throat clenching, my eyes bubbling over. That meant Sora had last been seen alive and well. Alive and asking about me, worried about me, quite possibly. Hearing that erased all doubts in my heart. I felt reborn with a new spirit and I knew then that if I wasn't going to find Sora, no one would, not even Sora himself. It was a weird way of putting my goal at first, but later in the adventure of it all, it began to make much more sense. But later is later and we're still stuck in earlier.

"Well, I gave the kid a gummi ship and haven't seen 'im since. That was...oh, say, 'bout a year ago?" He scratched his chin to be sure that a year had definitely passed since he last shaved. "He could very well be dead by now. He was a bit of an idiot, too. Little more than you are, though." I grabbed the closest thing I could find and flung it at him. Unfortunately my wrath toward him came forth as a winter glove hanging by the door. It did a quick swish back and forth before flopping on the floor. I can still recall how pathetic I felt to have unveiled vengeance with a mitten.

Cid looked down then up from it and continued to talk as if it had never happened. I can never describe how grateful I truly was it went ignored. "You seem like a desperate kid," He tore himself from his chair and approached me with a hand on his hip and a twinkle in his eye. "I'll do for you what I did for the other idiot." I was, to say the least, not so sure what he meant at first.

We left the house and entered into a much larger area after some time of walking around. I got to see the gloomy, moody atmosphere of Traverse Town some more before Cid showed me where he creates art. Ships galore were pounded into garages and a rather colorful, strange-looking machine was the one we strided upon and stopped before. I jumped when I heard two squeaky voices crack out of no where.

"Well, gee! Company, company!"

"When's the last time we've seen someone like him?"

"Years and years!"

"Maybe just one..."

Two little critters, one with a big red nose and a goofy face, and the other with a tiny black nose and a more managerial demeanor, came flying off the rocket and crashing onto my head. I almost thought with the way they came soaring down like owls on a mouse that I was going to end up with two bald spots on my head and two chipmunks with new hair to turn into wigs. However my head persevered and they just sat on it for the convenience.

"What's up?" Said the black-nosed one. I didn't reply. It was a chipmunk _talking._ "I'm Chip! This is Dale!" I wasn't looking, either, but I assumed he meant the red-nosed bugger.

"C'mon, guys," Cid waved his hand grumpily, wanting to hurry it up. "We're givin' Riku a gummi ship so he can go floatin' around the galaxy." They leapt off my head and back toward the ship, climbing up ladders and ramps they made for themselves. Cid slapped a hand harshly on my back, enough to throw me to the floor if I hadn't had a moment of delayed reacting to the impact. I looked back up toward him when he said, "We'll guide you. We'll help ya get through the universe here."

It was strange. Cid didn't want to help me whatsoever initially. Suddenly he seemed very serious about what he was doing for me.

"I just remembered something that kid said..."

_"Hey, Cid?"_

_"What, kid?"_

_"If another boy comes through here..."_

_"Hm?"_

_"Please help him out."_

"And then he left on his own, or so it seemed. Something was weird 'bout the way he knew to ask for a ship. He was like you, wasn't he?"

I hadn't heard this before. Cid's memory appeared to be poor or at least selective to what he wanted to recall. "Are you trying to say Sora came here and asked for a ship?"

"He wasn't like ya," Cid was preparing the ship. "He came in acting like he knew what ta say and how ta say it. If he came from the same world as you, then I think it's a little weird he knew who I was an' what I did. I'm a mechanic; I also build ships for inter-world travelin'."

It _was_ weird. How could Sora possibly know Cid? He was taken through the door against his own will by the shadows. Unless, if by the theory of other worlds, he had landed in another world and came here after hearing about Cid elsewhere. However I was getting a ship to travel between worlds. How would Sora have gotten from one world to this? It was unlikely he heard about it from any other place. How did Sora know Cid? _How_!

"All set!" I looked up as Cid was coming back down the ladder. "You can climb up this to get into the pit. We'll guide you through the communication system to the other worlds along the way. You won't be alone, kid."

I climbed the ladder with a smile. Sora really did me a favor by asking Cid to help. I sat in the cockpit and stared at the controls. It was a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle and I was a blind man. But even as I sat there, I came to another realization. Sora asked Cid to help me. Did he know I would be coming to save him?

"Okay, kid! Push the red button on the right ta close the top and start the engine. You'll need to flood the engine a bit for a good boost and lubing so you'll hit the green button beside that ta do that. Then hit the blue button ta go and stir with all your might 'cause this baby goes thousands of miles per hour!"

"Not _really_", I heard Chip intervene. "But it does go fast. Be careful, Riku!" I don't think I told them my name. "Sora's waiting for you!" Sora... he must've told them. I hit all the buttons as instructed and clutched onto the steering wheel with a burning crackle. I was gripping it hard enough to leave dents. The door to the garage opened and the ship started to shake insanely. It was a rocket launch from Hell.

"Good luck... Mittens!" Cid shouted through the intercom.

"Oh, you bast - GAAH!" The ship had shot off before I could even get the rest of my word out. My head felt as if a thousand books were smashing it into the seat, my stomach being sat on by a really, heavy person. The pressure was so extremely immense that I swore I'd rather keel over than continue this for too long. By the time I had gotten on path, at least according to Cid's explanation of the navigation system, the pressure was practically gone and almost manageable.

It was amazing. I was just floating on a space highway, heading for a completely different world in the universe. Sora, Kairi, and I always wanted to travel together. It's a shame, though, that I had to do it alone under such conditions. I promised myself one day I'd take them both with me in the machine. Well, Sora could drive it, too, apparently, but still! I was getting enthusiastic about this mission. My chances of seeing Sora again were high, for one, and two, I was about to be allowed to see everything Sora had seen on his leg of the journey. I wondered if Sora could feel how fast my heart was beating. Was he this exhilarated to travel as I am now?

Sora... I would find him. And I would _definitely_ save him!


	3. Side Story: a memory

A short side story to WoKH. Another Time... Another Memory.

* * *

**The Will of Kingdom Hearts: A Memory**

I don't believe Sora and I were ever in love. At least if we were, neither of us were willing to admit it. That was too dark a place to go, too scary a road to travel. What would our friends say? Our parents say? What would _we_ say to one another? Would we remain silent? Would we say the truth?

* * *

The summer time mostly required us spending time at the beach. Me, Sora, and Kairi. We'd stay till the twilight, laughing, playing, talking, or simply doing nothing at all.

"Guys!" Kairi would call out as the sun had began to cast itself away into the endless night. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" We'd wave goodbye to our dear friend and Kairi would run off cheerfully into the sunset. Sora and I would laugh - She was adorable sometimes.

Sora and I. That sounds wonderful together. It was set in a way it just rolled off your tongue. _Sora and Riku_. It felt so eternal when I said it aloud to myself. Two names that could never be seperated. A beautiful and amazing thing to behold, yet so simple and gentle. The sun was descending... Sora and I would have to head home soon. We hated the night but it was too awe-inspiring to set aside. What would getting in trouble one day be worth to stay a little longer together?

The sky was a creamy orange, melting candle wax and smokey clouds, lava lamps and painted stars. We'd lie in the sand side by side and just watch the sky slip away into darkness. We'd watch the innocence of day dance with the mystery of night, and the spectators would sparkle in their gaze, content to be watching such a mystical step swirl on the floor of Heaven. We'd lie there and dream of the days where we'd break free from our chains and soar into the new worlds that wait for us. This was our goal... this was our reason to live when it began.

"Riku?" Sora chimed. I turned my head to study him. His skin glowed with the essence of the sun itself, sloppy strands swaying in the wind's kind hand, combing his hair. "Do you think..." He narrowd his eyes as if he needed to see to ask. Suddenly he found himself closing those same eyes. "No, never mind."

"No, tell me," I pressed. It wasn't like Sora to not just blurt what was on his mind. It must've been of some importance for him to suddenly get bashful with me. "I won't laugh. Promise." This caught his attention. He really acted like a child sometimes. It was addicting to see the faces he'd make.

He gave me one of nervous trust. "Do you think... that if someone loses their heart, love can bring them back?" That _was_ a weird question. Unfortunately I gave it a weird look and he rolled away to face his back to me. "You're a liar!"

"I didn't laugh!" I laughed. I sat up and reached over to grab his shoulder and flip him onto his back again. "I laughed then but not at you! Well... at the way you just reacted - Oh, Sora. Look at me, you idiot." He did. Oh, _God_, it was amusing. He made the cutest, most poutful face I had ever seen. It lost it's charm when tears started bubbling into his eyes. Ah, I did it then. "Aw, Sora. Don't." I scooted across the sand to get closer to him. My hand laid against his arm to keep myself up. "Why did you ask that, though?"

He spoke with doubt, fearing my reaction again. I intended to be a good boy. "I've been having... these weird thoughts lately," He pulled an arm behind his head, twisting himself to turn away from me again. "Dreams, and stuff. They felt so real."

"Did you lose your heart in these dreams?"

"I'd think about it. Then I'd have those dreams. I'd lose my heart and turn into nothing. No one to save me. I'd hear words of loneliness, pain, and misery." I watched him as he spoke in a tight voice, very nearly in tears but not showing it. He was getting better at hiding his feelings. "I just thought, 'If this is what it means to lose your heart, does everything opposite preserve and save it's life?' "

I had thought about it and the more I did, the more I began to realize it wasn't a silly question and Sora had unnecessary fears. It was a true, deep sea thinker. It's like the question: Can love heal a broken heart? Depends. Just how desperate of a broken heart are we talking about? The way Sora had worded it was strange, though. He made it sound like the heart would be completely gone and the soul dependant upon nothing. Quite possibly what he meant but I wasn't sure Sora could think so far down into his mind. But could it? Could love bring that back from the dead?

"Sorry," He said after I had lost myself in my thoughts. He dropped his arm back down to his side with a hopeless flop. "It was stupid."

"No!" I quickly scotted myself down and returned to rest myself into the sand bed. I snatched his hand into mine and squeezed it tightly. "It's not stupid. I think it can." He looked to me with a gleam of surprise. "I think love can heal any wounds. It's a light that never goes out. Love is eternal, no matter what scars it happens to bear." The twilight was slowly drowning itself into the very end of day's ocean. "If your heart were to die, Sora, I'd bring it back to life. You'd never be lost to loneliness, pain, or misery. Not as long as you're my friend." I said this without thinking but with the utmost confidence. I meant _every word_.

Sora squeezed my hand back and we met each other's gaze. He smiled warmly.

"Riku...

"_That meant everything to me."_

The spectators remained, even as the dance ended and the prince of darkness was left to himself. Now they observed a new couple, one lying far away, down on a small world on a tiny beach. Where the ocean waters washed up on our feet and our fingers entwined with each other's and the sand. The night wasn't cold but a luke warm, comfortable and sedating. I was falling asleep; Sora had already drifted off. Our heads rested upon one another's, hair of ice and Earth mingling as the sky had, dancing in it's own appealing manner. I held onto Sora's hand even tighter, for a moment in this dark night, our hearts connected. I decided from then on I would protect Sora as I had said. And I'd gladly give up my heart for him.


	4. Wonderland

I'm actually partially surprised to have come as far as chapter three. I've had the "The End" screen for KH on my TV running for over four days now. It's been helping me write. :D Dearly Beloved is just that pretty of a song, though. Millions agree, they just haven't said it yet. I'm hoping this chapter will be as wanted as the last two. I don't think many people are reading it to begin with but that's alright, too. I'm enjoying myself when I write it.

Cid...uhm, gets something to stalk Riku with. There's no explanation for it but I wanted him to tag along. Just go wth it.

Game followers! You know where we're going next.

* * *

**Wonderland**

"That is one weird-ass lookin' world." Cid didn't have to tell me twice. I was the one approaching it. "It's called Wonderland - kinda pansy." Cid also didn't need to say his opinion a second time.

"At least it doesn't look like a scary place to be," I offered the co-pilot. The mechanic grunted at me like a boar. "What? Are you afraid of pink hearts?"

"No!" I couldn't help but grin at the way he was acting. Cid was too manly for a place like that. "Let's just land your idiot ass down on that planet!" I agreed and was carefully instructed on how to settle down without killing the ship. My body wasn't that important to Cid. It took a few times and a bumpy landing but I managed to get away with a few scrapes to the equipment. While nothing was harmed, Cid's heart had been impaled by a giant wooden spike shot from an arbalest. I climbed out of the ship by the ejection ladder and escaped before the man came back to his senses to curse me into the pits of Hell.

As the tip of my toe hit the ground, just before my other foot even reached the surface, I felt my body freeze. A flash of light raged through me and upon me, broken shards shattering everywhere to cast it away. I hit the ground stumbling but my balance kept - just barely. I had no idea what just happened to me. It wasn't painful but I couldn't help but feel like I dove through a glass window made of light. I turned back toward the ship when a small object zoomed it's way out and floated in front of my face. It was in the shape of a tiny flying saucer with a big, black eye in the center of it. It jerked and twisted itself up and down and all around my body before coming to a halt in front of my face. I had no idea what it was either until it gave a very deep, raspy laugh. Cid.

"The HELL are you wearin', Riku? You look retarded!" I was about to retort until I actually looked down at myself. A tight black shirt? I didn't think I had been wearing one the moment before. I lifted my arms toward my face and stared at a velvet crimson sleeve, white fur outlining the cuffs. The coat just hung above the floor, the same faux fuzz dragging behind me at my end and surrounding my neck. Sora's scarf, which I had been wearing for so long it's become part of my anatomy, had kept me from noticing it. However I DID notice I felt siginificantly taller, but that was only because of the knee-high leather boots I had on. Half my foot was jerked about five inches into the air on that heel!

"What _am I_ wearing!" I asked Cid in return. I reached toward the sky only to smack my hand into the feather that was hanging off my blood red French felt hat. These things hadn't existed in centuries! Not to mention half the bag hat was hanging against the side of my head. With the pants as dark and tight as the shirt that was beginning to itch, I immediately wasn't so happy with the world's supposed secure skin. "I didn't put this on!" Was all I could manage out in a snarl.

"If I'm not mistaken'," Cid sped over, still floating in his tin can. "Sometimes a world will react to an outsider this way. Ya have ta blend in anyway so make the best of it!" Easy for him to say. He wasn't the one stuck in it. "Are we gonna find Sora or not, kid?" Kick when I'm down. I worried that wouldn't be the last time he'd do that on this trip. The object reduced it's size in the blink of an eye and came in peace on my hat. With an alien on my head and a stumble of contorted balance to journey beside me, I began forward down the hall. "You walk like a woman."

"Shut up," I snapped. I found a table at the end of the hall, two small bottles sitting on it's very edge. I ignored them for the time being, too busy trying to find a door. To some disturbance, there was none, and it just had occurred to me then I was in a house. With no door. "Well, how the heck do I get out of here then?"

"Riku, look down there," Cid had gotten off my head at some point to float about. I clicked my heels over to crouch down and stare at what he was.

"Where did you get that machine anyway?" I asked out of no where. It looked toward me.

"I made it awhile ago for message deliveries. I jus' wanted ta try it out wit' ya." I nodded without statement and turned my attention back to our investigation. It was a small door with a face for a door knob. Very, very small. It snored like a bear despite that.

"That... better not be the door I have to go through," I announced to the room. It grunted at me in its sleep and I quickly began to spin around to find another doorway maybe obscured by a plant or something. I came back to it in the end. "No way! How can I go through there!"

"Noisy..." grumbled the door knob. I crouched back down and pressured my index finger into my thumb. I flicked the thing right between the eyes and snapped him back to life. "Well, I say - !"

"How do I go through you?" I forced on him. I was getting very frustrated with this world. "You're the only door here. I want in." He eyed me up and down, making my face feel hot because of the attire I was stuck with. It was a little unnecessary. I could feel a burning in the pit of my stomach, though. What if Sora was on the other side of that door?

"_Riku! Over here!_"

Sora...

"Out with it!" I yelled finally.

"On the table behind you there are two bottles. Drink from one and you shall shrink to my size." The door spoke arrogantly, as if I should've known that. I stood up straight and stepped over to the two bottles. "Those." He said when I looked at him with inquiry. "I'm not sure which one." He answered when I glared at him again. I had a 50/50 chance of shrinking so I had supposed it wouldn't be too bad to just take a guess. I was sure to hate myself later for that. Everything suddenly got smaller instead of larger and I felt my hat impact the ceiling before the top of my skull did. I cried out in agony and the door whistled at the injury. He laughed, even. Talk about insult...

"Stupid..." I grumbled and snatched the other bottle with the tips of my index finger and thumb. I downed it twice for double the effect and my body snapped into the tiny size I was searching for. Cid's contraption quite suddenly looked like a real space ship in descent. With a bitter mood hanging over me, I began to head for the door. I looked dead at him. "Gonna open _now _?"

"Yes, yes," He yawned and swung open at the twitch of his nose. Cid shrunk down once again and trailed after me. Another corridor greeted us, about the same size as the last one only it was on a smaller scale. Really warped one's mind when you thought long enough about it. I could see a light at the end of the relentless tunnel and was dying to go faster but I had heels barring that way of travel. It didn't take too much longer to find myself in a courtyard - literally. It was definitely a courtroom but in a beautiful garden.

"Seize him!" I heard a vicious woman scream and I was shocked to see several playing cards take hold of my limbs. "Bring him to me!" These..._poker_ cards! They were moving! And they had me captive, no less! Wonderland was definitely a trippy place to be. I basically went willingly along side of them as they walked me up the alley and to a wooden stand. Before me was the judge's stand and the judge behind it was a very large woman with a very ugly face. Figuratively and sincerely. "Who _are_ you?"

Was she really a woman, I thought. My jaw hung open before and after my answer. "Riku," I gaped. She slammed her gavel a couple times and I slammed my hands on my ears. She could crack the Earth with that power.

"I've heard of no _Riku_! Are you part of the conspiracy that involved that _girl_, Alice?" Who? What? Conspiracy? I was confused, to say the least. Dragged by inanimate objects before what seemed to be a queen by the looks of her outfit and crown - Wait. The door knob had a face! What the Hell! "ANSWER ME!" She boomed in my direction.

I jerked back into attention like a soldier under command and shook my head. "I don't know any Alice, ma'am!" With the look she gave me I realized Cid's intimidation level was nothing in comparison. She was Satan herself, this majesty of a poker deck. She tapped her finger in thought, deciding silently whether she should believe me or not. I almost died when she spoke again.

"Alright... It has been a very long time since she disappeared... But if I find out that you have _anything_ to do with it, Riku, It'll be off with your head!" I gave a silent stammer of agreement and postponed any sign of fear until my back was turned. Just as my eyes got off her and I began to walk down the aisle, Cid's big mouth said,

"That's a one mean, _huge_ bitch."

"What!" She yelled out after us. I turned to the machine as if it had lost it's mind and by the time I met the Queen's gaze, she had already been screaming to kill us both. I had wanted to avoid this, but I quickly ran for my dear, sweet life. Or what was to be left of it. The heels on my boots were definitely making me doubt my chances of survival.

"Cid! What the _Hell_ was that!" I screamed at him. He slammed the machine into the back of my skull, nearly knocking me right over and to my inevitable death. I found the grass getting greener and the world growing more lush around me. Flowers and trees began to conquer but the cards did not relinquish their goal of capturing me for extermination. "I have nothing to fight with!" I wailed, and turned around to start ducking and dodging. I had hit a dead end of thick trees. I was trapped to be killed; the prey had been cornered.

I felt a rush inside of me. I thought I was going to vomit but it reminded me more like a thick pole jamming through my chest. No pain, just an undesirable feeling. I was doing my best to avoid getting my head knocked off my shoulders, all my mind screaming was to survive. Blaring to me, it would, if not roaring. I was afraid. The doubts and anxieties began to increase ten fold and my vision of the future was foggy. If it weren't for that ramming in the center of my breast and the consistent badgering my brain was persuing, I still believe I would have died. For I could hear his name. I could hear his voice.

_Riku!_

Sora.

_Come on!_

Sora...

_That meant... everything to me... (1)_

"I need to find SORA!"

It was a light. It wasn't like a bright light you see at the end of a tunnel or when you swear you're dying you reach for it's beauty and comfort. It carried an eerie manner to it, as if to say it was the darkest light to ever exist. When it flashes it cackles, when it fades it coos. A candle in the mist but without a radiance; A diamond without it's sparkle; A star that doesn't twinkle; a sun that doesn't shine. A very deep... _dark_ light.

I imagined a weight was added to my arm, a new force swarming from my finger tips with each swing. The card had stabbed through the hat on my head only to find himself sliced completely in half on the Earth. My bangs flashed before my eyes and I just kept slashing, some how taking each enemy out with each heavy sweep of my arm. I felt more exhausted by the moment that passed through me, the sand grains of time exploding into millions of particles each millisecond I fought this battle. I had a desert at my feet for the eternity it had taken to finally be the last one standing.

"Ah ha!" Cid snorted through the speaker. "That army sucked! If a wussy kid like you could take 'em on.."

I snapped my attention to the machine to thoroughly chew him out before it quickly jerked back to the trees falling down behind me. Standing far taller than my shrunken body was a machine of unexplainable mechanics. Legs jointed like bones, larger than the other half of its figure. The arms dented consistently and, predictably enough, remind me of cards meeting at each end. With four heads of checker pieces stacked high upon it's torso, I felt pretty screwed.

"Cid!" I looked at him. "You need to shut the Hell up!" I shouted in surprise and leapt away when it suddenly came crashing down on me with it's purple bowling pin in hand. It wasn't going to waste time with my disposal. There was no way I could beat this thing without taking a severe trashing first.

But then I felt it.

_Awaken!_

There was a flare inside my chest. It was no longer pain but something like strength. _Power._ My cumbrous arm felt more and more like a feather, light but shifty, but similar to a sword, durable and deadly. My vision was distorted but I had never been able to see so clearly. My goal was beyond this monster and he was _in my way._

With that, it ended before I knew it began. That awkward body was crumbled at my feet, broken and destroyed. So were a few trees around us but all they did was bury the corpses of cards I had left without graves. I found myself with my arm in the air, a defensive stance prepared for one final attack that never came forth. I swung my limb down and heard something smash into the dirt.

It was then I noticed that the weight of my arm was all being squeezed in my fist. Slowly my gaze went downward and I was in disbelief as to what I saw. In my hand was a long, black and white steel object. The handle reminded me of a spade, which made me feel a little sick over everything I had just destroyed. Within it was the bar I was clutching and on the white side, outlining the curve, was a molding of an erect angel wing. On the opposite side, in the same fashion only black, was a more jagged wing - Grotesque and bitter. The white and black swirled along the center of the staff, a spiral of chaos and tranquility until it's very edge. Yet another angelic wing curled and embraced the same disguting, dark one.

Forgiveness. It was forgiving the other. Cradling it despite its faults, comforting it despite its inhumanity. Just what on _Earth_ was I holding? I then saw at the tip of the handle, swing and clinking against the metal, was a chain with a figure on the end of it. My heart stopped at the sight of it.

"Sora's crown."

Indeed, it was the same half-crown pendant the boy had given me hanging off the item I had just used as a weapon. Not a replica, not something _close_ to it - It was the same. I could see the indentations of an "S" glittering at me. I reached for my neck... As suspected, it was gone. What had I just done? What was this thing? Was this what was bumping deep in my -

"OOOHHH! It's a keyblaaaaaade!" I screamed and swung the 'blade' toward the voice at hand. I whacked the head off a purple-striped cat. Inevitably I found myself screaming in panic this time. "Ooh, my, ooh, my. To behead is not useful if a head to behead is already heading off." Three words flashed into my head: _No freakin' way_.

He held his head in his arms, giving me a precarious look before rupturing a pleased smile. He had _way_ too many teeth. My guess was it was definitely a feline just an abnormal color. I wasn't imagining things; I wasn't going insane. At least I had hoped I wasn't and prayed that I wouldn't be after the encounter. Despite my denial at what I was seeing, for I had seen _everything_ else - I don't know why I bothered to freak out anymore - I took in the words he had scared the crap out of me with.

"A key-what?" I asked.

"Keyblade," He repeated. He swung his tail off his perch like a content tiger in a warm jungle, only this place was a miserable dark forest that made me want to burn it to the ground. He popped his head back on in a way it literally _popped_ and reminded me of a doll. "You have it yet you don't know it? Unacceptable, said the Flamingo." I had no idea what he was talking about but I went with it regardless. He obviously knew something for being a weird cat.

"How do you know what a Keyblade is?" I questioned. He cackled; I cowered.

"Long ago, in a far off land that was two feet from where you stand, stood another child who looked just like you, only his hair was nappier and his face was completely different." I narrowed my eyes in intimidation. He didn't care at all as to what my expression had to say, though. "In his hand, he had the same keyblade as you, only simpler and less personalized." My eye twitched but I listened. "And he ran off with Alice to somewhere known but unknown to me."

Alice! The Queen had said that name. A boy with a keyblade ran off with Alice. Nappy hair, a child?

"Mister... er," I gave up trying to address him properly rather fast. "This boy. Was his name Sora?"

"Quite possibly!" He answered enthusiastically. My hopes had never shot so high. "But, in turn, quite impossibly." I gripped the keyblade with both hands, ready to cut down his tree to beat him to death. "But then it is unknown when one never has intentions to question another's nature. It's all about right questions in trivial matters - for each wrong one leads deeper into deceit. Each unasked is another unanswered and further is the spiral of confusion and hate."

The tip of the blade thunked into the ground, fading away into the same eerie darkness that had brought it forth. I felt the chain curl around my neck in return. The words the cat had spoken made no sense to me... at that time. I didn't realize how significant the ramblings of a crazy animal would later impact my life.

I had left Wonderland without any real clue to where Sora had been or where he was going to be. While I was happy to be out of those clothes, I couldn't help but feel a small chunk of my hope being yanked away from me, casted into the stars I had taken to travelling through. Cid stayed silent for once, probably fearing the ship would be blasted from the sky should he open his mouth once again. While I i _was_ pretty angry at what he had caused, I didn't like the silence. I didn't want to think about the confusion the purple cat had riled up inside of me.

"Cid?" I called out. Only idle noises came through the speaker. I sighed and quickly gave up on bothering him any further. I actually regretted calling his name the moment I did but then I found myself feeling worse that he hadn't replied. I could be a professional emotion batter with the mood swings I was taking. I took my comfort to the window of the ship and allowed myself to wonder if it was everything Sora had seen. Did he enjoy it? He always loved the stars. We'd watch them for a long time together. Such as one time when I crawled to his window... (2)

The ship suddenly rumbled. I gripped the arm rests at first before snatching up the wheel. "Cid?" I called out again. I heard some clatter from his end but not before the ship started screeching wildly. "Ci - GAH!" My gummi ship had spiraled once upon the impact it had recieved, the wall reaching out for me.

"Riku! It's a meteor shower! Ri - Wat -!" He was breaking up but I knew what he was trying to say. He didn't have to have a clear reception to relay this message. I tried to keep my control and balance to the ship but not before it top-sized and began to descend. I could taste the smoke in the air around me, choking me till I was blue in the face and black in the eyes. I couldn't concentrate on any safety measures or emergency procedures that I had learned in general first aid and whatnot. My body's surprise had hit my mind's pause button.

I blacked out, my last sight a round, green object in the distance. It reminded me of my home only much more endowed with trees. At least I thought it was. I had fallen asleep before I had a second look.

* * *

(1) This quote may not be recognized unless you read the side story that comes before this chapter. 

(2) This will be another side story. Side stories will more than likely be occurring every two chapaters! Yay!

Yes. I did a total cop out on the Trickmaster fight sequence. I don't like detailing fights in my stories. Unless they have significance. You've played the game. You don't need me to go through it!


	5. Deep Jungle

**Mikenno says:**

Wooooow! Chapter 4! (Technically 5! But shh..) We've gotten this far? I have practically no readers but I'm so happy! I'm enjoying my project and I'm glad those that are following along are enjoying it, too.

I feel like because it's a slash fic that so far it's really boring. There's no boy love to keep you distracted and giggly. (Though it will come eventually in the main storyline!) I suppose that's what the side stories are for so you could just skip every two chapters and read the side stories... But please don't! You'll make the rest of the story sad; It may kill itself.

My friend told me I take a lot of time to describe the scene than to put dialogue. It's a good thing Cid is around or there would probably be no dialogue at all! Only Riku talking to himself...

So Riku's gummi ship went down! Crashed! We know our hero isn't dead because then the story would be over but still it's worrisome. You can't help but worry about Riku. I feel bad for making him crash now. Waah!

I don't think this chapter will be as hyper as the last but more revealing for Riku himself. Let's see!

Edit: I just recently discovered the keyblade I designed for Riku... is actually IN KH2! My friend showed it to me after I designed it. Maybe I'm just psychic! Though the keychain is different, of course. And the KH2 design is a lot cooler. But the handle and the blade... Wow. oo It's similar!

Edit Edit: I found this chapter really hard to write and complete. Probably because I've been so busy and tired. BUT IT'S DOOOONE! I guess you'll be able to tell. I'm ashamed. ..

* * *

**Deep Jungle**

"Oh! Daddy, Daddy!" The voice echoed maybe fifty times in my skull before it came to a calm. "He's coming to!" That was only about forty times but my eyes did decide to open. "Green eyes!" the female voice gasped. "I'd have thought blue..."

"At least the picture is in black and white!" chuckled a much more matured voice. Both the speeches were threaded with an accent, one I couldn't recognize. All I knew was my head was sore, throbbing, and there were two voices without faces in the room with me. I forced my upper body to rise and meet their gazes and I met a rather strange place instead.

The house I was in was undoubtedly a tree house. The open window doused in leaves; an enormous, thick branch swirling and spiraling across the center of the ceiling; The flowers plucking through the cracks of the boards; the old man and young woman in loin cloths... Wait. My eyes dropped up and down over their bodies, the girl's chest covered as well as a tapered, torn skirt clinging to her hips, the geezer looking like a sophisticated businessman at a toga party, only short and plump. I locked onto them as they had locked onto me, both of us surprised by the other.

"Uhm..." I wasn't sure what to say. I shook my head and jabbered, "Buh.. Er.. Where the Hell...?"

The deep-shaded red head smiled, blue eyes alit. "I'm Jane, first of all," came the first voice I had heard. "And this is my father." She gestured her hand to the old man. Well, good. At least he wasn't the King of the Jungle and she his maiden. "You're in the deep jungles of an island." I scanned, registered, and paid for it. It was yet _another_ world, just like Wonderland only this place was a jungle. Well, I supposed two people living in the jungle wasn't as psychotic as the Execution-happy Queen and the purple cat, but that changed when a younger man with brown dreadlocks came crashing through the window much more gracefully than I had in the gummi ship.

"Oh, Tarzan!" Jane turned to him with an exasperated huff. "Door!" The man was bent like an ape as he leapt toward the doorway and grabbed the side of it. "Please try to remember using it."

"I'll try next time," He offers to calm her spirits. For a woman in the jungle, she was hell bent on manners. Tarzan let go of the door to approach me and he sat on the bed I had occupied to stare at me. By sitting and staring, I mean jumping onto the bed and shoving his face into mine. Personal boundaries didn't have a definition anymore. "Who are you?" He asked me with a grunt. I gave him my name and he leaned back. "Riku, Riku, Riku..." He mumbled it over and over before standing up from the bed and heading for the door.

"Tarzan?" Jane took a couple steps after him but he smiled back at her and flung himself outside. She cocked her head after him. "That's odd," She muttered loudly. "He normally doesn't do that. Oh, well, I gave up questioning his nature and just going with it awhile ago." She took Tarzan's place on the bed, only she actually sat down and kept away from me. I was getting warm so I pushed the blankets off. I saw Jane's face turn red but I thought nothing of it. "So where did you come from, Riku?"

Unsure of how I should respond, I tried to be partially honest. "Another island." She nodded. "Uhm.. I can't really remember it very well."

"Oh, my," She placed a delicate finger against her plush skin. "Amnesia, maybe? That crash of yours _was _pretty nasty." I gave a quick 'Yeah, sure' and found myself looking around again. I felt pretty cold for being in a jungle. Breezy. I flipped my legs off the bed and stood up with a wobble and a stumble for balance. Once I found my equilibrium, I started to walk.

I lifted my arms to cross against my chest and they most sincerely did. I felt my skin on my skin and something told me that was a rather suspicious thing to feel, considering I had a hoodie on last time I checked. Before I even looked down, I told myself to be prepared. It could have very well been Wonderland all over again and if my clothing had indeed decided to change, I was more than likely going to be completely and utterly offended with what there was to offer.

But it simply wasn't fair! Did any of these weird-ass changes happen to Sora or was I the only one parading around in a _loin cloth_! With an inescapable blush I sighed and let myself have it. No wonder Jane had given me such an embarrassing look, I realized. By the time I noticed the scarf was hanging off my hip - holding my skirt in place - and my gloves were still on - fingerless and all - It really didn't matter anymore. I was pretty much naked and there wasn't anything I could do about it. At least the company I had was good for this attire.

I lowered my arms to my side in fitful security and continued moving about the house. It was cozy and welcoming despite it's rural nature and most definitely warm and entrancing. I felt molded into its structure rather than an outcast and I think the clothing helped with that a bit. Pictures hung on the wall just on paper rather than frames and they were all hand drawn. A scribble with what seemed to be a "J" at the beginning stood out on the corner of each which left me to assume Jane had drawn them. She was _really _good.

Her father in more social clothing, some gorillas eating scrumptious piles of what seemed to be fruit, a patch of bushes that looked like beds, a giant tree that seemed full of life and energy, Tarzan hanging on a vine by his _toes_ (Talk about strength!), A key with a... Something about the key had made me stop. For one, it was a strangely designed key. And two, why would a picture of a key be relevant enough to put on her wall? I felt as if I should've asked but I felt too embarrassed to directly start questioning her. Why? Might've been the fact I was half naked in front of the woman. Anything was painfully abashing to accomplish.

"Jane," I turned to her with a sweeter voice. At least as kind as I could make it without squeaking. "Did you draw these?"

She rose to her feet, lacing her fingers together. "Ah, yes. I draw all my memories when I can," She runs a finger across Tarzan's face in the one image and chuckles. She moved on between the giant tree and the key. I tried to get in her way of the other pictures and force her toward the key. It seemed to be working when she tried to be courteous of my gawking and move on by herself. Sure enough after staring at another picture of Tarzan just off to the left of the silently-inquired drawing, she came to it and stared thoughtfully. I walked up beside her.

"I remember how interesting that key was," Jane began to mutter. Whether to me or herself was pretty irrelevant but I wondered how much I could get out of her if she was talking to herself. As long as she didn't grumble too low, I was fine with it. Her voice began to lift as she recalled it further. "A giant key. A boy was carrying it awhile back through here. Before I moved in with Tarzan, yes!" She padded away from it and I quickly chased her. She opened a large basket with a creak and inside I noticed was a huge collection of art books and papers, supplies and the lot. She pulled out a book and flipped it open and through some pages before finding another picture of the key at a different angle. This one was sideways at an angle; the one on the wall was a flat drawing. My attention was drawn to the chain at the end of it with three silver circles on it. A large one and two small ones on top. I didn't recognize it as anything then.

She dropped the book back inside and stood up. "I need to go find Tarzan," She told me and looked toward her father. "Daddy, I'll be back in a bit." With that she went through the door and grabbed the nearest vine to swing off.

Left sitting on the floor from staring at her picture book, I found my curiosity, well, growing like a well-fed cancer. I turned toward the wicker box and began to lurk through the images. Jane had a serious talent that seemed wasted in a place like the jungle. Her art was accurate and extraordinary and could take her down many paths in her life. But she chose this jungle. My guess is because of Tarzan. Just the way her eyes glowed at just his picture made me realize she had a deep love for him. It was sweet and made me jealous, so I ignored it once I thought about it.

I browsed the gallery she had to offer and one book caught my eye. It was red with gold lacing on the edges and looked worn and used yet well pampered regardless. I open the cover once it found its way into my hands and flipped page after page of people. The first few pages were a woman that reminded me of Jane, probably her mother, and a few of her father before it quickly shifted into Tarzan. After about ten pages of her jungle lover I was getting fed up. Childishly I was about to throw the book when the next page quickly changed from Tarzan to a different person.

Wild hair. A tight black shirt. An attachable hood with a zipper to keep it on your neck. The chain. The half crown. There was no mistaking it.

It was _Sora_.

Despite nearly crapping myself at the sight of seeing some form of Sora in another world, the picture immediately became disturbing. The expression he carried in the image was blank. Sora's face didn't so much as hint a smile and his eyes looked like giant canyons rather than endless oceans. Maybe it was just a bad sketch, I thought. I flipped the page.

_Sora._

He was sitting with the same key from the other art pieces on the ground, looking toward the sky. Same expression, only more beaten and defeated. Next page.

_Sora._

Next.

_Sora._

And after that.

_Sora._

I kept flipping. And flipping. And turning. And slapping pages away.

_Sora._

_Sora._

_Sora._

_Sora._

_Sora!_

Then finally I flipped it again and it changed. It was an older man this time with long locks of hair flowing down his back, some stuck out on the sides of his face and on the top of his head, as if cut short too soon without control. He was dressed differently but I closed the book and threw it back.

Jane had met Sora. This was more than obvious after what I had just witnessed. But despite the shock of Sora's interpretation being _completely_ wrong, I found myself laughing. Jane's father walked over, foot steps loud and disorderly.

"You alright, M'boy?" I kept laughing. I was clutching my head and was howling at the ceiling. I was so happy. I was vomiting so much joy I was losing my mind. "Riku?"

I took a deep breath and let out a long sigh to deepen my voice again. I looked toward him and grinned. "Sorry. Just... Sora was here. I finally found a trace of him that lets me know I'm on the right path! Concrete evidence!"

"And what would that be?" I showed him the book with the images. He smiled sadly before just frowning and handed the object back. "I see. I remember Sora." He didn't _sound_ very enthusiastic to remember him and that was another disturbing way to react to someone as wonderful as Sora. "A friend of yours?"

"Most definitely," I replied. He seemed surprised so I had to ask. "What's that look for?"

"Well..." He sheepishly picked the book up once more and opened it to the section Sora resided in. He turned each page slowly after close examination. "By the way he acted, I wouldn't have believed he had any friends at all." My heart froze. That... That couldn't have been right. That was stupid. Sora wasn't anything like that!

"Why do you say that?" I asked, trying to resist my urge to snap at him about how sweet and loving Sora was with everyone around him, strangers or friends alike. Strangle him till he understood it, to boot.

"He was mostly quiet. When he spoke, he didn't say much beyond a few words. He looked rather beaten up, as if he hadn't slept in years." I listened with a great fear burrowing inside the bowels of my stomach. I quickly felt ill with each word. "I recall him saying, 'No one is coming to my side.' once. When Jane drew this, in fact." The picture of Sora sitting on the ground. It _was_ the most miserable of all the pictures she had done. A beautiful display of flowers and clouds, a perfect, warm, sunny day and a corpse sitting in the rays trying to enjoy himself.

Something inside me began to burn. It felt the same way as it had in Wonderland, just before the keyblade the Cheshire Cat was rambling about appeared in my hand. I felt my nails tearing into the pages of the "photo" album.

"Riku? Why are you crying?" I heard Jane's father ask. I couldn't look up at him to give him a "What the Hell are you talking about?" look. It really didn't matter by then because I knew what he was talking about when I found wet plops smacking into the paper beneath me. At some point my eyes took over and were just waterfalls of misery and suffocation. I felt helpless to see Sora in such a manner and not understand why or what I could do to make it go away. I had to drop the book before I tore the pages out, I was shivering so furiously.

I stood up and stepped away from the entire basket before I kicked it out the window and down the tree, the outburst of emotion turning it's tide and quickly subsiding. I wasn't very good with all that to begin with so it wasn't something to last very long. I wiped my arm across my eyes and looked toward the door. "I have to go talk to Jane." With that I ran outside into the smoldering heat and snatched the first vine I saw. Hoping it wouldn't snap on me, I clutched tightly and swung off the platform.

I didn't get very far by the vine but at least I had gotten to the Earth, which was all I needed. I began to run in any random direction, letting my heart lead the way. I found that to be a mistake pretty quickly when I realized a heart at loss wasn't going to help me find anything in turn. I slowed down in my step and sighed to catch my breath, hoping maybe Jane or Tarzan would be flying overhead or maybe just casually walking by. To no avail.

Every tree suddenly looked like a tombstone. A place beneath which I could lie down peacefully and melt away into the dirt. Rot into the soil and retreat into a place of bliss where Sora would be with me forever. Sora and I, our friends... It was chilling. I kept thinking dark thoughts without even realizing it and the more pain I felt, the more frequent I got. The closer I seemed to Sora, the farther my happiness became. It didn't seem accurate for my feelings to be turning so erratically.

I did sit down under a tree, knees up and elbows resting upon them. I slapped my legs down when I recalled what I was wearing, despite having no one to giggle at anything near by. What on Earth was I doing with myself? I flung my very life into the stars in search for another, whether I lived or died, and suddenly I was having doubts? It was disturbing. It was a very unnerving predicament to be in.

"Riku!" Tarzan's body swung down in front of me, man still on a vine and hanging by his feet. So he really _could_ do that! I jerked away from him as the leaves and broken twigs began to fall around me, afraid maybe he'd come down, too. Tarzan was skinny but he damn well looked heavy as an ape. "I knew I remembered your name."

"My name?" He grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet; I obliged hesitantly but I didn't have much of a choice regardless. "How could you remember someone you never met?"

"I did!" He cocked his head in thought. "Sort of."

I felt like a princess being carried away by a white stallion. Tarzan wasn't so much a prince as much as he was just a horse dragging me by my waist into the night. However my mood was so apathetic that fear wasn't available for purchase. I was just letting myself be slammed through a labyrinth of trees and mossy branches to an unknown destination. Was there a goal or was Tarzan just playing around with me out of boredom?

Trees began to go astray; the sky seemed more upfront; the sound of running water trickled into my ears; Bark became rough, dry rocks and that became wet, slippery stones. When I paid attention, I found him and myself at a waterfall. We carried on around the descending falls and slipped into a cave behind them. He had been carrying me long enough, I thought, and he read my mind and put me down on my feet. A cave behind a waterfall. It was suspicious and I thought he was about to kill me for sure. Who would look here for my body?

To soothe my cynicism, Tarzan grunted for my consciousness and swung his head to follow him. I did. We climbed more rocks and jumped more stones and graced across slabs and hurt our feet on rubble. On and on till Tarzan finally tugged himself into another crack in the cave. I peeked inside with a frown and found it to be a wrong accusation. My face quickly shaped itself into a proper emotion: awe.

I noticed everything but was what out of the ordinary first: The vines tangling in beautiful swirls on the walls, the flowers blossoming and crossbreeding into new flowers with arrays of colors and smells, butterflies fluttering around the small puddles and sleeping in their beds made of petals... and a giant keyhole. It blended into the room, considering, but it was hard to miss a giant hole in the wall - I just happened to have missed it while staring at everything else. I thought it was what Tarzan had wanted to show me, but it had no relevance to me. A giant keyhole wasn't any of my business.

"Riku," I turned to his bellow with a jump only to meet a calm face. The cave had an echo issue, to say the least. I walked over to him and he pushed some moss and vines out of the way. My heart fell at my feet. It was merely stone but with distinct carving embedded into it. It had the innocence of a child but the deeper meaning of a turmoiled adult, the chalky images of my head and Sora's. I could just tell it was us, mostly because of Sora's style of drawing his own hair and I just looked like a palm tree. Despite what Jane had been drawing, Sora looked happy in his version and in his wiggly hand was his half of the crown. It was a huge version of it but I could clearly see an "R" scribbled on its corner. I had the other half with a respective "S" in the same fashion.

"Riku," Tarzan hit the wall a couple times. I turned to see what he wanted and actually saw he was reading out loud. My name was on the wall. "He wrote this."

"Sora did?" I asked. Tarzan nodded and took some steps back to let me investigate. I did approach the letters and narrowed my eyes. My mind was disarrayed with questions. Why would Sora draw this here? Why would he write my name? I looked around the chalkboard of stone to see if I could find anything else he may had written. There were some other chalk marks but nothing legible, if even meant to be. That was all Sora had left for me. That... idiot, I thought.

The night had come and eaten the afternoon away, leaving not even a warm, cozy cloud behind. The sky lush with stars more than made up for what was missing but I couldn't help but feel that the light loss wasn't worth it. There was a kind memory for comfort, however: The sun always rose the next day.

"Riku!" I looked up to see Jane's father waving his boney arm at me. Tarzan made his way over to a beckoning Jane. Beside the geezer was the gummi ship. It didn't look damaged whatsoever, which was surprising. I ran to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me.

"My ship!" I stumbled to a stop before it. "I thought... I thought it was - !"

"Kid!" I gasped at Cid's voice floating toward me. "You're alright! Good ta see ya alive!"

"Cid!" I laughed and hit the canister. He flipped away from me and floated back toward the old man. "I get it. It was you."

"Well, I certainly couldn't have taken care of this contraption myself," He explained with the wipe of his brow and the younger of the two old men returned to the machine in his anti-gravity manner. "But you can head home now, yes?"

I couldn't reply. There was no heading home, now was there? I knew the moment I pushed myself through the doorway that I wasn't going to ever be able to go home. Home grew more and more pointless as the year progressed and finally, on that day when I saw the light inside the frame, I didn't even know what my bedroom looked like, or what birthdays I had missed. I had no idea who moved in and out, who died and who was born. I could barely remember what a girl looked like. I gave up my life to save another and I had known the consequences when I told Sora I would protect him. It was all or nothing and I wasn't about to run away.

I smiled at him. "Not yet. I have to find Sora, first. I'm his friend, old man." He stared at me before giving a crooked smile.

"Riku," Jane walked toward me. "Please. Save Sora. He saved us, even though he looked - "

"I will." I didn't want to hear her description - I saw her art. "I don't know what he did for you but I..." I what? I laughed it off. "I'll save that dumb kid!" I quickly snapped my front away and ran for the ship. I climbed inside and didn't look back till I took my seat. My clothes bursted back onto my body, much to my relief, and I nodded to them. They all ran back out of the way and I charged the engines to ready take off.

I was grateful to have crashed there. I was a nice rest after the fight in Wonderland and, aside from that, I learned that Sora was really alright. Well, within reason. The look on his face, the marks he left in the cave... None of it made sense. Did something happen to him? These thoughts could not be purged by the beauty of the universe around me. They consumed me; Engulfed me. I was doomed to think of those "clues" until something new came up. I didn't respond when Cid's voice rang through the cockpit, alerting me of an approaching world a few hours later. I had awoken from a dream.

A dream where Sora's hand was merged into my flesh, gripping my heart. It didn't hurt, even though I could feel his fingers tightening around the muscle like an eagle's claw on its prey. My body kept fading in and out, white and black. Sora's eyes widened, shoulders hunching and upper body beginning to twist away. He looked so pained, as if he were causing his own misery by squeezing my insides. He bared his teeth and started screaming, mashing them together as tears rained out the windows on his face. The chain around his neck slowly began to grow smaller and smaller till it was pressed into his skin. It began to choke him as he tightened his hold inside of me. Stop, I would try to say. I couldn't talk. Stop it, Sora. Stop. You'll die. Sora. Sora.

"RIKU! Help me! Riku!" His voice was scarred and torn apart. His fingers dug into my soul. "HELP ME! SAVE ME, RIKU!"

"...ku! Riku! A world is approaching! ... Riku? You alright?"

"Fine." I looked out the window, rubbing my eye to clear it of any discharge. "Just fine."

* * *

Sorry that took so long. I like the ending to it. SIDE STORY TIME! Yay! Shounen ai! 


	6. Side Story: a star

Side Story number 2! Lots of banchata...

The sky belongs to them...Maybe?

* * *

**The Will of Kingdom Hearts: A Star**

The sound of laughter ringed through the air. The streets were crowded with the heat of enthusiastic party animals, children screaming as they played tag, adults laughing at jokes riddled with innuendo. The sky mamboed its way across time, taking the awe and gaze of the thousands of people to watch it progress. It was a beautiful sight of shimmering beads and layer upon layer of orange, red, pink, blue and deeper and darker shades that swirled upward to the glowing face of the dancer, silver make-up and lucious black hair.

It was a perfect opportunity to show off midriffs and cleavage, tight clothes and intricate designs meant for special occasions. Games, alcohol, insane amounts of food from every culture imaginable at your very disposal. Grab a plate and eat Japanese and Mexican all you'd like. A good blend of rice, eh?

Streets were blocked off for the annual fesitivites without hesitation, no one looking to ruin a good time for the sake of congestion prevention. You went around and that was that. Besides, if you had been driving during the carnival, you were an idiot anyway. That was the belief. Be there or go to Hell.

"Riku!" I loved hearing my name with that voice. "Hey!" Sora ran up behind me and, like everyone else, he was dressed to party. Everything about his outfit was tight from his crimson jeans to his black shirt, a white vest and pair of coal-shaded gloves decorating the rest of him. He still wore his chain among the array of colorful beads that were being thrown out among the masses. I wasn't much different: Just all my colors were the opposite and I had no shirt on. "We're playing Truth or Dare with Kairi, Tidus, and all them! C'mon!"

"Isn't that game a bit... childish?" I asked, somehow fearing for my life at the very idea. The things they would get me to say, I bet... or worse: _do_.

"Well... no! But yes," Sora looked disappointed. "I guess you won't then?" I shook my head and apologized. He sighed a little but gave a warm smile in due time. "I should've known better. You're right. It's just a dumb game." We started to walk together.

"It's not really dumb," I tried to lighten up for him. "It's just... I feel too old to play it." I was 15 and feeling my nerves shot. How sad. Sora laughed at my misery without knowing it. It devolved into a yawn before he just slouched his shoulders. We had been out all night flailing around the games, food, and music to dance to. Mostly the games since Sora seemed happiest there.

"Riku," I smiled and looked at him. "Let's play our own truth or dare, then." Our own truth or dare? I knew I would've been asking for it but he knew my curiousity, despite less dangerous than his own, was as clumsy as a drunk dog. I nudged the bait.

"How is that any different from playing with the rest of the group?"

"It's just us," He replied quickly. "Just you and me; no one to be embarrassed for." Sora had a point. I could freely speak my mind in front of him without fear of rejection. He always kept my feelings at heart. "So... what do you say?"

Albeit my extreme trust in our bond, I still had a small sketch of doubt lingering in the corner of my soul. While I didn't want to play, I didn't want to offend Sora either. With some hesitance and a small hum of thought, I accepted.

"Alright. But nothing weird!" I threatened, jerking a finger at him. He only laughed at me, never taking anything I said seriously to begin with. I hated lying and keeping things from Sora so I knew he was going to do something awful to my self image. I imagined humiliation and degredation...

"Alright. I'll go first. Truth or Dare?"

"Truth!" ...Which is why I was surprised by his first question.

"What do you think of when you look at the stars?" Astounding. Absolutely astounding. He could ask me anything in the world but he would ask me something I'd answer under normal circumstances? Sora never ceased to amaze.

"Well," I looked up for good measure. When I saw the glitter glued to the sky, my mouth hung open and nothing exited. I stopped walking and found myself gazing upward in deep thought. I was rather suddenly in a position where I was unable to answer his question. What _did I_ think of when I looked at the stars?

I thought, How beautiful the night sky is. It gives me a sense of tranquility, a feeling that I'm under the same sky with someone else that thinks of me somewhere. I blushed and shook my head. I was under the same sky with Sora, after all. Such a glorious cave of diamonds, an endless tunnel of frozen ice crystals, alit by a light that never fades away. Glamorous. Is that what it was to truly be famous? Everyone knows who you are and what you look like, and all they have to do is look up at you and admire. A strange wonder but used by so many eyes, which brought me to Sora.

We looked at each other in silence, Sora with a stare unbreakable. I had an answer to his question but nothing comprehendable. If I had tried to say it all at once, he would've got a bunch of scrambled words and a flip of my tongue for a reply. I couldn't keep him hanging, however, so I gave it a shot... slowly.

"I was thinking... how you're like the sky but not really," Sora's brows rose; I averted my face. "Everyone can see the sky. It's a wonder well known and no sweet secret to anyone. Everyone in the world knows it's beautiful and vast, mysterious and collective. You can lose yourself in it easier than a painting.Everyone knows that." He looked terribly lost for a moment but each word sunk in as I paused and he began to look aware. "But not you. You're a hidden wonder, Sora. Only a select few know what wonderful things they see..." He was staring rather blankly. I began to get flustered and tried to finish it up. "Whentheylookatyou." I shook my head. "So, you're not really like the sky but - !"

Sora laughed. Somehow I was relieved but then completely offended. I pocketed my hands and kept my mouth shut. "Do you want to go?"

"No!" I snapped. "I don't even care now. Go again." Sora gave a little sigh but was not yet defeated by my poor attitude. He asked me the same imparing question and I grunted a "Dare" to avoid the last bit of humiliation I had again.

Sora's eyes glistened and he smiled. "I dare you..." His arm rose away from his body and the bones of his fingers batted into mine. "To hold my hand." I nearly twisted my own head off by looking toward him as fast as I had. He tapped at my hand more with his own and moved closer and, shyly, I accepted the dare. It was part of the game, after all. We walked hand in hand from that point on, even when we got a block away from his cozy house with a beautiful beach view. I could see his second floor room window from where we were.

"You've been quiet," Sora noted. "Did I upset you?"

"No," I answered immediately. "Annoyed me a little but I'm not anymore."

The wind soared through the small street, passed us, and went to better places. This was an awkward situation and I would've been happy to avoid it had it not been my own. When Sora yawned, it broke my concentration and I continued walking him to his house. Our hands finally departed.

"Tomorrow's the last night of the party. You should get some sleep, Sora, so you can win at the competitions tomorrow." I grinned at him. "Don't want me to beat you, right?"

"Right!" He puffed his cheeks up, fists up as if ready to fight. He was so immature it was cute. He looked up toward his room and gawked at the tree that sat outside of it like a fazed hawk. I could've just turned and walked away, but his distraction was my distraction and, inevitably, I had to question it. Before I could even get his name out of my mouth, he spoke. "That tree..." He looked toward me with an informative stare. "Is durable. You can climb in it and it won't break under your weight or nothing." He smiled his normal Sora smile and began to jog toward the front door.

If he was trying to confuse me, mission accomplished. Even by the time he got to the door, wiggled inside, and slammed it shut, I had no idea what he brought it up for. Was I supposed to thank him for that knowledge? Nice to know it grew from good soil. Thanks, Sora! However as I looked toward his room and saw the light turn on and his window slide open, all the pieces fell together. A huge, thick arm of bark was perfectly aligned with his window sill. With my jaw officially greeting the devil below, I scampered toward the aforementioned tree and began to scale it.

It didn't take me more than a couple minutes to climb it securely and get onto the branch. Just as I got there, the light turned off and the brunette popped his head out his window.

"Oh good!" He whispered. "You caught on." I was half on the branch and half through his window with a smirk on my face and a light skip in my heart beats. "Thought you might've went home." He was already in his silk blue pajamas with a clean face and fresh minty breath, clothes from the day abandoned on his bedroom floor right beside the hamper. How irresponsible.

I chuckled as if I had just modestly saved the universe."Well, you were more than obvious," I casted aside my ego. "But couldn't you just wait till tomorrow to hang out with me? Making me climb a tree like some prince in a story, Sora - Really!"

"Well, you didn't have to," The younger replied. He had a point but he didn't need to actually use it against me. I went to slap him playfully but he dodged my poor effort easily. Sora started to swipe back and it became a cat fight where if I lost, I probably would've fell two stories to my death. It didn't matter, though, because he was snickering and having a damn good time. I was amused just from that. He grabbed my wrists and shushed me, even though it was just as much for himself as it was for me. We both laughed as softly as we could to get it out of our systems. He lowered my arms, still holding on to them, and sighed.

"I wasn't really too tired. I get kind of wired and awake when I get home sometimes," He explained, his thumb brushing the top of my hand. I twisted myself so I could rest my head on my arm. As I did, he quickly let go of me. "I guess I didn't want to be by myself."

"Those dreams, still?"+ I asked and he nodded. "Have they changed at all since you last mentioned them?"

"No. Same as always. I wish they _would_ change so I wouldn't have to worry it's some kind of message or terrible omen, y'know?" It _was_ understandable. Reoccuring dreams are often a sign of something to be or something already happening. I'd be scared to think I'm losing my heart, too. Or... _could_ lose it.

I reached forward and snatched his hands into mine once again. "Sora," I started slowly, making sure I had his undivided attention. "Remember what I said to you? When you first told me?"

"You'd protect me..." He mumbled and clutched onto my hands. "Right?"

"Exactly. Forever." I leaned closer to him. "I promise. My word and this chain around my neck is my oath." His blue eyes were glossed over in moisture and with a reassuring nod he let go of me and struggled to keep himself back. I watched him get embarrassed, unsure, and scared all in a period of ten seconds, and it was cute, to say the least. I climbed through the window a bit more and rested my hand on his chest. "Lay down. You'll hurt yourself." He complied at first but the moment I was back out the window he sat up and leaned against the side.

Sora was staring up into the stars again, looking for some place to take comfort in. I've never seen him so confused before where he looked pained. I felt somewhat of a failure to see his face so contorted.

"What I think about when I look at the sky..." He closed his eyes. "Is the knowledge that somewhere out there, you're under it too, Riku." My heart froze at his words. He had just... read my mind? A cold breeze nearly flung me off the branch in shivers but I moved myself to sit on Sora's window sill for safety. I turned to address him.

"Sora... I - " I caught him sleeping soundly against the window frame, my shadow obstructing the glow of the moon that outlined his face. I shifted back onto the bark and let it take the whole of his features, illuminating him like an ocean on a clear evening. He was... embarrassing to say, but beautiful. And he looked _so_ tired and peaceful, not afraid of anything anymore. That's the Sora I loved to see. Comforted, relaxed, and care-free.

Back onto his sill I went, hands returning to his body to help him lay down. Sora reminded me of someone in a coma but willingly and content to be so. I wonder still if behind those soft eye lids if he was dreaming a horrible nightmare or laying on clouds in the skies above, floating away to a safer world. I never asked. I'm sure he wouldn't have remembered. I pulled the blanket over him, tucked him in till he shifted to make himself comfortable, and I wished him the softest "good night" I could manage.

Down the tree and three houses away, I looked back to make sure it was still there. I was still afraid. I think Sora had been, too. He... wanted to hug me then. I turned and kept walking. I couldn't let anything happen between us. We were too young and I don't think Sora completely understood it himself. No one was ready for it; We weren't ready for it.

Sora. I said I'd guard you forever. Even if it means breaking your heart, I'd be the first on my knees to gather the pieces. Even if, in the end, you never wanted to see my face again.

A cloud casted across the moon.

Even if it's from the shadows, I swore I'd still protect you.

* * *

+ This dream was mentioned in the first side story. Sora loses his heart and falls into a lonely and painful darkness. 

I just wanted to say sorry. XD The Truth or Dare thing is an inside joke with myself... It's so stereotypical, no? I couldn't do it... Well, I mean like in a group. The last bit doesn't count, does it? ... I guess it does. I failed. I don't like this. ;.; Lets just move onto the next chapter like this never happened...

Oh! But I did want to mention the touch about Sora not being like the sky. I guess it was another joke to poke at the meaning of his name. For those that don't know, Sora means "sky" in Japanese. I find the weirdest things to laugh at...

There's also a lot more dialogue than normal. I was so lazy! T.T I'M SO SORRY.


	7. Olympus Colliseum Pt 1

**Mikenno says:**

After the struggle in Deep Jungle's chapter, I'm hoping this one goes easier. More characters introduced! More dialogue! More humor! Yay! More... shounen ai?

kuku.

Also, I wanted to say thank you, again, to my beta reader, Meggido, and to all my loyal readers. You're a small group by the looks (I can't see how many people actually look at the story, only comment, after all.) and I'm glad you've stuck with me. While I feel this story's chapters aren't as long as other stories I have done, I appreciate you taking the time to read a mad fan's obsession, brief or elaborate.

While the first person I write for is myself, you guys help me keep my will to do greater creations. You give me wonderful commentary and push me along and it's very emotional and I'm bad at emotional stuff. XD Just... thank you for everything! Now read! Ignore me. e.e

P.S. If you really like this story, tell someone you know! I love opinions.

* * *

**Olympus Colliseum**

"Push harder, you wussy!" Cid was _screaming_ in my ear as I saw the gate crank open just a bit more. "We gotta see what's in this world here! Hurry up!"

"I'm sure it'll still be there when I open the damn gate!" I snarled at him, my aggravation boiling over in masses of foamy angst bubbles, and began to push with the new adrenaline rush I had found. I opened it enough to squeeze myself through, which was all I needed. "God! There's more to this world than this stadium, y'know." I gave a heaving gasp and began my approach to a much kinder set of doors; smaller and surrounded by guardian statues of gold with swords erect toward the sky. I felt a little more reassured.

The door opened, light enough to let a gentle spring breeze slam it against the wall if it so desired. Expecting to see a grand hall of sorts at the entrance, I was disappointed to find a small room with a short, plump goat man in it. I walked inside and started to look over the trophies lined up on the shelves, studying the names -

I flung my body in the general direction of what I had seen. Goat man. Or something! What was he? I still don't know. I never asked. I had just stared until he started to yell at me. His voice was raunchy and obnoxious but it snapped me out of my daze.

"Hey, kid! What're you doing here? This place ain't no hang out for weenies!" Well, that was a great start. Aside from the nightmare I had before I got there, along with Cid yelling at me, now some ram thing that was like a manifestation of Cid yelling at me, and my slamming headache from fighting with the doors and allowing all the blood to rush to my head... Well, I've had better days.

But his insult caught up to my frustration and the concoction's result was anything but pleasant talk.

"Hey! Who're you calling a weenie, fatty?" Okay, that was childish but I was at a point I didn't give a flip. "Er.." He was snorting smoke at that point and without him, I had a feeling I wouldn't learn anything about where I was. To reconcile, I sighed loudly and bowed. "Look, I'm sorry...Erm?"

"Name's Phil, and whatever. Kid, I'm waiting on some real contenders to show up, okay? Don't make this look like any ol' person can just waltz in here and - "

"Would you hang on?" I held a hand up. "I just wanted to ask what's going on here."

Phil turned his attention to a poster nailed to the wall behind him. I took myself there as well and read over what he started to explain aloud. "We're holding a challenge in the colliseum to find the strongest warrior. Of course, we all know that's Hercules, the strongest man in the world, born from the very Gods! He's a true hero, undefeated!" Phil clicked his heels toward me, looking up as I looked down. "But we hold it anyway. It's a good show." I nodded to show I understood but he didn't seem to care if I had or not. I frowned and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Well, hey, I'm no wimp either. Can't judge a book by its cover, right?" I gave a confident grin but Phil laughed it right off my face.

"Kid, you're what, twelve?"

"Sixteen!" I huffed.

"You're a little boy that comes in here with no gear or weapons with the body of a girl - " My jaw dropped to hear such a mean comment. "And you expect me to believe that you're not a wimp? ZERO." He gave me a thumb down and turned away. "Look, I have other business to take care of."

"Fine! I don't want to compete in your crappy competition anyway! Bunch of cheerleaders with swords..." I started to walk away but by the time I hit the door Cid was buzzing after me.

"Uh... Weren't ya here to find Sora?" I stopped and slapped my forehead. He was right. I was there to ask about Sora and that beaver thing had me all worked up. I turned back and started for him again. His other business seemed to be just standing there staring at the wall but rather than make any harsh mockeries at it, I just crouched down and tapped his shoulder. He twisted just his head to face me.

"What, girly boy?" My eye twitched. "I thought I told you to take your feminity and go make a skirt."

"I AM - " I growled, _seethed_ at him, and took a deep breath. "Phil, have you met a boy named Sora by any chance?"

"Was he like you?" I furrowed my brows; I knew something sarcastic was coming.

"Like me _how_?" I pressed.

"Y'know..." He looked me up and down. "Drag queen."

I felt an unspeakable anger bubbling deep in my intestines. Phil was most sincerely pissing me off and I wasn't about to stand for it. As I lunged my hand forward to wrap around his neck, he did the same with his own stubby arms and went for mine. While I grabbed to actually strangle, he was investigating elsewhere on me. I stopped in my path of slaughter to see he had ahold of my necklace. I casted my arm aside and rested it on my bent knee.

"Hey, kid," He flipped it over, studying the 'S' carefully as if a jeweler determining it's worth, and then let it fall back against my chest. "I think I know who you're talkin' about. I remember a Sora." I snapped myself upright as he continued. "What're you looking for that kid for?"

"He went missing a year ago," I explained. "I've been trying to find him ever since."

Phil didn't seem to believe me. He gave me that look of mistrust, as if every intention I had for Sora was impure and unjust. "A year is a long time. How do ya know he wasn't dead?"

"Sora wouldn't die!" I found myself yelling at him. "If Sora was dead... I would know it." I clutched a hand at my heart, not noticing I was doing so until Phil cleared his throat. "I would - "

"Well, your heart isn't completely lying to you, I guess," I looked up at his grim words. "It's a shame, too. Sora had hero potential..." His face was troubled. "But he didn't have the heart."

No. "What do you mean?" I knew something wasn't right about that. Sora was a pure person. He'd do anything to help anyone in need. He may not have been famous or anything for his heroism but anyone would be glad to tell you what a kind Samaritan Sora could be.

"Sora participated in the matches. It's hard to forget a kid like that, y'know," He turned his invisible neck to face the other way. "Ruthless." One word I thought I'd never hear about Sora. "He was a cold-blooded machine for destruct - "

"Shut up," I couldn't stand to hear those things anymore. Now a vision of how he was acting along with Jane's pictures was too much for me to handle. "I don't want to hear that from you." I found myself screaming. "That isn't Sora!" Yet I felt an unamountable weight inside my heart, as if I was only denying what was true. I ignored that with the utmost priority then.

Phil was eyeing me when my fit was over and he took a deep breath. He was rather serious. "What's yer name?"

"Riku," I muttered.

"Riku," He echoed. "I wanna train ya," I didn't look at him but my face reacted with surprise. "For Sora. Y'need to save that kid." I already _knew_ that but it was nice to hear someone else say it. I didn't feel so helpless anymore knowing that another mind, albeit a harsh and rambunctious one, agreed with me. "What d'ya think?"

"I think I will - " I was more than happy to accept his offer, not really paying attention to understanding how a shrimpy moose creature could help me. However someone's outcry ran over my compliance.

"Maybe you should let me handle this one, Phil," A much deeper voice interrupted. I spun to behold a tall man with wild brunette hair and a relaxed scar across his face approaching us, gripping white shirt partially concealed by the black short-sleeved coat over it. Around his neck was a pendant of no similarity to mine, much more intricately designed and mastered, and the fact he wore three belts just on his hips almost seemed unnecessary, but then I reconsidered my wardrobe at home and avoided being a hypocrite. He was very handsome but very rough, and the giant blade with a huge nozzle did _not_ rectify that opinion. I later would learn that he could do some real damage with that weapon.

"You?" Phil cocked a bushy brow at him. "What does any of this have to do with you, Leon?"

"Sora is the keyblade master," He said rather bluntly toward me, ignoring Phil completely. "Show it to me."

"What?" I took a step away from him. That man, Leon, struck a sudden fear into my soul. "Show you what?" He lifted his blade up and got into a position that I would have to say was to beat the crap out of me.

"What're ya doin', Leon!" Phil started bellowing in my defense but even I knew it wasn't any good. "Leave him alone!" But that did not stop him from rushing at me. He lifted the blade into the air, the light of it glaring into my eyes, and all I could do was throw my arm up.

The sound of metal clashing together was the last noise I expected to hear. When I opened my shivering eyes to see what just happened, I found his sword was just above my head, stopped by a long black and white bar. Leon simply smiled and hopped away, leaving me in my shock. In my hand was undeniably the same weapon I had brought forth in that insane world with the cat. The...

"Keyblade. Exactly what I wanted to see," Leon said coolly, smacking the tip of the blade into the ground. It was beginning to be apparent that everyone but me knew something. I gave him the most baffled expression I could support and he beckoned me with his gloved finger. "Come with me, Riku. I will teach you what you need to know."

Hesitantly I followed him, not even thanking Phil before I left. I suppose I was rushed at with so much new information and questions that my brain ceased to function for anything save for direct orders. Suspicious? Yes. Did I care? Not particularly.

Leon led me to the outskirts of the stadium and, upon recollection, he opened the doors without a problem. Cid was amazingly silent or I had finally learned to tune him out and while I hoped for the latter, it proved to be the former when he grumbled something about anal retentiveness and a hair cut. I assumed he meant Leon. I was guided to a small town with a bustling busy city about a mile away, clearly visible by its smoke and stance on the hill. It looked ready to roll away into a river somewhere.

He opened the door to a house about three blocks in and I stepped inside before he slapped me retarded through the door. At that point I would've only needed a tap. I meandered my way to the nearest chair and sat down, eyeing the keyblade I was still holding. My neck felt naked but my hand felt warm. Would I finally get some answers? I kept thinking that over and over. Then Leon sat down after spinning the back of the chair to face me. He did not do the same and placed his arms on the top, chin on them.

"Riku, do you know what's happening?" I shook my head. "Damn it." That was not what I wanted to hear. It must've meant he didn't know much more than I did. "Alright. Well, at least let me explain this." He swung a finger toward my occupied grip. "That is a keyblade. Now normally it's something only the keyblade master should be weilding but you, who is not he, has one regardless." That, to say the least, was a bunch of Blah Blah Blahs. I think Leon noticed that, too, because he continued much slower.

"Your friend, Sora, is the keyblade master. He is the boy meant to guard the keyholes of every world and keep them locked and safe from the Heartless." I couldn't even supply a lost expression before he began to shove that into my brain, too. "The Heartless are fiends without hearts, the embodiments of darkness gone wild. This is what I know of that."

"Can you just... Tell me what this has to do with me and Sora?" Leon shook his head.

"I was hoping you could tell _me_ exactly what Sora's doing, but apparently not," He rose to his feet. "As far as I know, he's raising Hell. I have no idea for what reason or how but everywhere he goes - "

"Darkness follows," I muttered. The man looked at me with surprise but didn't question it. Even if he had, I wouldn't have been able to answer him truthfully. Leon sat back down, rested his head on his arms, and sighed. "I don't understand. How can you bear the keyblade?"

Well, seeing as Sora was the "keyblade master", I could only assume he was the only one allowed with it. I studied the weapon in my hold and my eyes almost immediately landed on the chain swinging from its hilt. I gripped the bar and raised it up into Leon's eye's vicinity. "So you think it's this?"

The brunette lifted his head and evaluated what I had to offer as an answer. "What is it?"

"A pendant both Sora and I share," I explained and twitched my wrist enough to make it spin slowly, revealing the "S" engraved on it's back. "It disappears off my neck and attaches itself to this thing." He watched it twist back and forth, not seeming to pay attention to it at first, but in time he rose again and let it slide into a peaceful sleep in his palm.

"Do you love him?" Leon asked rather plainly. I felt my face burn up and I dodged the question with a slippery answer.

"He's my friend. My best friend. And he's not very bright so I worry about him. I guess that's love, sure." I was a little... amazed to see Leon's face have such an awkward smile on it. It melted into a nostalgic looking mess and finally it became a frozen block of ice once more. I was convinced the man was bipolar. Tripolar. Qua - Something. He was screwy and I immediately felt the eerie presence of misplacement.

In fact, it was looming over me like a tall, dark shadow. Something told me then it wasn't just my imagination on how small I felt but I did, sincerely, find myself to be much smaller than the cause of that enormous shadow lunging over my shoulders. When I cricked my head in it's owner's direction, I was only partially surprised to see a man with psychotically spiky blonde hair and a shredded red cloak choking his neck in folds descending upon me like the Grim Reaper with some terrible static shock. He was not very happy to see me, his glowing blues eyes told me that much.

While the Nazi stared me down like a prisoner of war at his disposal, Leon cleared his throat and saved the day. "Cloud, this is Riku." For a moment he was looking at Leon but the eyes of the hawk snapped back at me and I felt my stomach fall through my ass. His hair was ridiculous and I couldn't take him completely serious but those illuminated balls in his eye sockets scared the Hell out of me.

"Leave," He demanded and started to work out of his first layer of clothes, that being the cloak, thankfully. I don't think I could've handled anything else. Leon slammed his hand on the nearby table and snarled after his apparent room mate.

"Cloud! He's not leaving. He's staying right here." He gave one of those slow turns like he was ready to walk up to Leon and slap him down. "He's connected to Sora!"

"But he is _not_ Sora. We don't need him." He waved his hand at me and I started to get to my feet to obey. Leon smashed his hand on the top of my head and put my rear right back in the chair. I was angry at the reign of terror he was about to cause for me. I was 16 and my heart couldn't handle that extensive amount of pressure. "Why are you constantly causing me problems? He carries a horrible presence."

It took a lot of willpower to resist calling him a hypocrite and proceed to thoroughly explain how much of an unforgivable presentation he gave. The hair; the eyes; both together silenced me.

"Look!" He nearly tore my arm out of its socket thrusting it into the air without my body's permission to present the keyblade. "LOOK!"

"Leon, I have a headache," He wasn't looking as he turned away to be sure he wouldn't be able to either. "I've had a long day and I have a lot more to do tomorrow. Just leave me alone." He came upon a door and grabbed the knob just as a chair smashed into the wall beside him. Leon was still in the position he had let the object go in and he slapped his hands back down on the table when he had Cloud's undivided attention. "...That was uncalled for."

"But I have your attention! Get back here." The blonde returned immediately but at his own pace. "I want you to help me train Riku. Think about it." Cloud didn't seem to want to and it was beginning to bother me that Leon was talking as if I hadn't been there. "Sora's become a big problem. I think Riku can contain him." I had a headache. "Wouldn't that be best and probably the safest way? Sora more than likely won't harm him." I was tired of hearing the same things about Sora.

"That's true but train for how long exactly? We can't keep him here for months - not even weeks!" I could feel my eyes growing heavier.

"A week. With both of us, we only need a week. With his keyblade, he probably doesn't even need that." Keyblade. A week. Sora. Fight with Sora. I believed me coming along had been such a great convenience that I suddenly didn't want to find my friend to spite their hopes. "What do you say?" How about what I say? I kept thinking.

"...I suppose," Cloud answered. Well, I was thinking about leaving... "Alright." But if you insist! "Only a week. In another room."

I was angrier than a hornet.

"Why another room? We should probably watch him..."

"No! He sickens me. Another room..."

Cloud walked away and right out of my sight. This left Leon and myself, the satisfied lion and the raging lamb. That had been the crappiest part of my trip thus far. Leon, arms crossed against his chest, turned to me with a pleasant purr. I glared at him as hard as I could but he had the advantage from living with Cloud. I stood up and lifted my keyblade into the air at my own will, a small light flickering off the pendant. If it hadn't been attached to the blade, I probably would've chucked it out the window and left. Despite refusing to believe I had to fight Sora, I tried to at least deny the sudden determination I felt in the idea of being trained to be stronger. I guess I thought it'd come in handy since I was obviously swimming in an ocean as opposed to the lake I swore I dived into.

"Tomorrow morning, alright? Are you hungry?" I shook my head. "We'll eat breakfast and go train tomorrow then. You have to get something into your system."

Leon had taken me to my room and dumped me there. It didn't take me long to realize it was beside his and Cloud's bedroom when I heard them arguing with each other about why Cloud was such an asshole and why some brat had to take care of the other brat. I curled up on the bed provided and stared out the window, where most of the view was obscured by a large stump and some raggedy excuses for leaves. I eyed the keyblade that I had rested on the wall and in that same instant it cracked into two and swirled into light. It soared to me like a school of fireflies and came to a rest in my outstretched hand. My half-crown occupied my palm and I took comfort in the void being filled on my body again.

The time alone gave me time to think again which, in turn, made me wish I hadn't left Leon's side. I also noticed that Cid had suddenly disappeared. Either way, that meant to me that I had to start facing apparent facts that I didn't want to face or, at least, wasn't ready to. Two different worlds, several different people, all the same opinions. Sora was a machine. A monster. A boy with an empty body, forsaken of a soul. He was some keyblade master with an obedience for slaughter. I sat up, taking in very slowly what I had gathered out of the few people I had spoken to. I tugged my necklace back over my head and let gravity take over, defying it all the same as I rose up to walk to the window.

I couldn't see anything past the pitiful tree but I wasn't looking for much to begin with. I investigated the bark, the parched leaves, and the miserable branches that erected at all angles from it's roof and was happy to see something more depressing than me. What I didn't understand was why that bit of nature looked so horrible. It was in constant sunlight and the grass at its base was as green and healthy as could be. But not the tree. It stuck out like a man in black at a Valentine's Day parade. Seeing as the tree was making me angry, I wandered away from the window and crashed back down onto the bed.

The thought of Sora made me just as mad. What was happening to my friend? Why was everyone talking about him as if he were the devil himself? Was it some side of Sora I somehow missed? Or did something horrible happen?

My mind was riddled with questions that just couldn't be answered. Over and over, I ask them - again and again and again. I silently agreed that asking questions was all I could do to keep myself from going insane by accepting everything as fact. I just sighed and closed my eyes, absorbing the sliver of hope Leon had for me. That maybe, just maybe, if they train me, I can face the Sora I was sure didn't exist. All I could do was hope that by becoming stronger, I would again meet Sora. Hopefully not in battle.

Quicker than I could detect it, the sun had eaten the moon and rose to the top as beautiful as ever. If only my morning had gone as peacefully and silently as the moon into its sleep. My door was _kicked down_.The raging blonde bomber raced into my room and tore me from my dreams before I even knew I was awake and out of bed, terrified. He patted my head a couple times in the doorway, which was as far as Cloud dragged me before leaving it for my body to handle, and cleared his throat.

"Expect it _rough_," he announced and swished away like a bat. To say the very, very least: I was freaking out. I never wanted to hear anything like that from his mouth - EVER. However on such a crude morning and in such a world where fighting seems to be a past time, I hit myself for not expecting it. After a meal of having food shoved down my throat for energy by the brunette of the house, which resulted in at least me nearly gagging to death once, I found myself standing beside the shortest, fuzziest man I could remember.

Phil looked up at me and nodded, eyes gazing back toward Cloud and Leon, who were already standing in the arena, weapons prepared. I frowned and threw my arm out, my chain flickering into substance in my fist. The keyblade was at my disposal more easily now that I knew what I was doing.

"Two against one?" I observed aloud. "Little unfair for me."

"You have a week!" was the blatant reply from Phil. "Ya need to get crackin', kid. This is gonna be a crash course." I felt my eyes twitching, as if glazed over by that concept. Cloud took a small step back, which was enough to catch Leon's attention and totally screw up my concentration. I saw the blonde shake his head and shrug off Leon's concerns and he beckoned me forward with the flick of his fingers. I brushed my hair back and proceeded, sweat bleeding from my hands. I knew I had some sword skills so I wasn't completely dumb on the subject, but my opponents definitely had more practice than I did.

When my feet were both in the ring, my teeth clenched and my body tight, Cloud and Leon both swung their swords and charged.

* * *

Wow. XD I did a lot of dialogue and humor this time. I guess it comes with the introduction of more characters that aren't, well, Riku.

I decided to break Olympus Colliseum up into two chapters. Why? Because I'm mean.

And Riku's theme from KHII is so.. YES! It gives me so many ideas for this story. ;-; 33333333 I wonder if I can make it so I can write another one for when KHII comes out..Hrrmm... Probably not.


	8. Olympus Colliseum Pt 2

**Mikenno says:**

And we're back! Olympus Colliseum part 2. Isn't it weird that Coliseum is spelled wrong with two Ls? The game is that way.

I think this'll be a short chapter. I don't really have much left to emphasize on... It's gonna be sooo boring. But if you want, skim and skip to the end. T.T I wouldn't blame you.

The Kingdom Hearts II OST is really awesome. It's such an inspiration. Can't wait till March! Also, Sarah McLachlan's "Train Wreck" is a nice song. Anyway... Story. Riiiight.

* * *

**Olympus Colliseum II**

I couldn't remember much the following day. I laid in my bed, stared at the ceiling, and my brain kept asking why I was still alive. I had no answer for it. I still don't and never will. By all means, Leon and Cloud should have killed me that day and my body was justifying it by aching as much as humanly possible. I was bruised, distorted, and pretty pissed off. They hadn't even come to check on me that morning and my mind was boiling with dirty remarks.

When the door did open, a completely new face appeared through it. The man was tall, buff, and had orange hair. Handsome and carried himself well, he graced into the room with a sheepish smile and a hand behind his head. "Hello."

"Hi," I cocked a brow at him. He pulled up a chair beside the bed and sat down as I sat up. "Who're you?" I asked, figuring I had a right to.

"Oh! Right, sorry. My name is Hercules." He held out his hand. I took it and winced at the strong grip he had. He pulled it back and nodded; I twitched my arm back to my side, hand regaining blood. "Uhm... I heard you're going to be the one to save Sora."

"Well," I felt my sarcasm rising, my fuming rage ready to present its ugly form but fighting itself to the dirt. "_I_ was told I'm going to fight Sora. I don't see how beating him up saves him, but okay!" I slid back into the bed and flattened my face to match my demeanor and the ceiling. Hercules seemed nervous around me for such a strong-looking guy.

"Well, whatever it is, I hope it helps him," Thanks, Herc. You made me feel better, I thought cynically. I should've given him a break but I was still mad at the sword flailing duo for not doing the same for me. "I watched your fight yesterday. You held a lot better than I did against those two the first time." I'll give him this: He did boost my confidence on that one. I turned to give him an eye. "Really! You did."

"Why are you here?" I found myself asking. Hercules fumbled on the question and knew it was time to get to the point. He smiled.

"Well, I did want to thank you, for one. I... spoke with Sora. He fought me and lost, but I really had to struggle with him. But when he talked, I knew that wasn't the real him." I nearly threw myself forward off the bed. I heard my back crack and the pain shook through my entire body but that wonderful, _wonderful_ sentence made me ignore it.

"Really! You don't think - !"

Hercules shook his head. "Sora... was definitely not a good person at the time." My shoulders sagged; I was clearly ready to be disappointed again. "But something in his eyes was screaming for help. It was disturbing, to be honest."

Actually, I didn't know how to feel then. Hercules managed to suppress my emotions into a puddle of goop on the floor. Why was I always in a position where I was destined to be confused? Of course, I couldn't answer that for myself. I tried changing the subject to the best of my abilities, redirecting the conversation to a more... less depressing topic.

"What happened yesterday?" I asked the gentle brute. He smiled again, which made me nervous. He stalled in his reply, undoubtedly trying to find the proper way to tell me how badly I got my ass beaten without hurting my feelings. "Give it to me straight." I grunted to save him the strain.

He nodded and his smile died a little from the inside. "Well," he began, still attempting to be optimistic for my sake. I already knew how much of a failure I had been but it was a nice gesture anyway.

* * *

Riku stalled in his step when he saw the two pairs of blades aiming right for his head. Neither Leon nor Cloud had intended to go easy on him, which Riku entirely believed otherwise was what was going to happen. His emerald eyes skewered the arena for a place to run but it didn't really matter when both men were on top of him. With a cry the boy dove off to the side, clutching his only protection in his fist: the keyblade.

"What the HELL!" He yelled at them from the ground, rising from his dodge with scraped palms and pants torn at the knees. "Are you trying to kill me!"

"The Heartless will be!" Leon ran forward, swiping his sword but not fast enough for Riku to not defend himself. The 16 year old threw his bar up and tried to push back against his power. "They won't take it easy on you!" Riku twisted his blade over Leon's and thrusted him off, a strong leap back throwing him right out of the ring. The fight wasn't to stop with him being out of bounds. "The Heartless will use _any means_ to destroy you!" Leon took a slamming step forward but much to Riku's dismay, Cloud had snuck up beside him.

"Sora..." Riku's eyes widened, neck twisting toward him. "Will not hesitate to destroy you." That was all it took before Cloud smashed the handle of his blade right into Riku's jaw. The teenager soared like the wind, blood painting itself into the flickering silver hair tangling in his eyelashes. He smashed into the side of the arena and laid half unconscious on the ground. Cloud spat at the dirt and casually brought himself to hover over his fallen body. "You'd be dead right now if we weren't trying to train you."

The hair fell away in chunks from his eye, the blood binding the strands together. Blood shot and angry, it glared up at the blonde, which caused him to grab his head as he had before the fight. Leon jumped down beside him and rested a hand on his arm, only to get slapped away in response. Riku rose to his feet and watched the two of them have a silent argument. He climbed back in the ring and blew out the blood from his mouth.

"Come on! We haven't got all day!" Riku yelled out and started toward the center of the ring. Not liking to be challenged by someone he just practically defeated, Cloud was the first to charge after him. The out cry of rage left straggling in echoes was enough to let Riku turn around just in time to start striking back. Sparks were flying, the metal clashing similar to the amplified sounds of women screaming in torture. The glare in Riku's eyes was more powerful than his blade, obstructing Cloud's steps enough to have him struck down by the sixteen year old.

Leon tagged himself in and with his own grace and speed took over for his partner. Riku, though just barely, was keeping up. Leon narrowed his eyes to see Riku's have an eerie glow as he fought and knew silently it was time to end it.

He threw Riku's balance off with a strong uppercut of his sword and ran off to the other side of the arena. Cloud was already standing there in preparation. Riku could only stare in wonder and prepared to have them rush at him again.

Then came the red and orange glow around Cloud and the crystal blue shine surrounding Leon and he knew immediately something else was about to go down.

"**_Omnislash!_**" Cloud snapped forward.

"**_Lion Heart!_**" Leon dashed ahead.

* * *

"...And their swords went _insane_ on you. It was amazing!" I gave him the most annoyed look I could manage and when he apologized, I was glad it sufficed to shut him up. "But you didn't die?"

"If it makes _you_ feel better to say that," I gave shortly and curled back onto my bed like a sick, lonely child. Hercules rested his giant hand on my small head and patted it as gently as he could.

"It does," He chuckled. "Because now you can be a hero where I can't, Riku." I closed my eyes when I felt a tingle in my cheeks. My throat burned and squeezed itself, twisting around and around till it ringed all the moisture out through my eyes. I slid my arm across the bed till my face was covered.

The following day was gifted with recovery and cursed with rebound, for I found myself right back into Cloud and Leon's hands. I on one side, them on the other. It was starting to look like a repeat. Day after day I stood on that ground and they stood on theirs and we'd cross our borders and destroy what the other half had. But what I felt was repetition... was actually quite the contrary.

The third, fourth, fifth time was much less straining than its predecessors. My feet felt less like boulders as time passed us in the dust and the wind, the keyblade's weight as comparable to a feather than the ton of steel it had once been. The more I challenged my limits and faced my reasonable doubts, the more I found myself to be much more powerful than I imagined. It was a burning sensation in my heart, almost hot enough to actually seethe my soul and make me curl over in agony. I found myself mostly laughing at my random weakness eating me from inside. It wasn't a problem for me, I thought. I was a god before these men. Or I would at least soon become one.

The final day's end hit the horizon in the form of orange skies and singing crickets, drifting milk clouds and the fleeting sun. I was to learn that there would be no fighting that day when it began and I'd actually come face to face with the initial hatred I had for that world. It was time to talk, not battle.

Cloud and I sat outside the arena in a grass patch not too far off, staring at the time flow by. I was almost sure he didn't have anything realistically important to say to me so I was beginning to shift in my seat as I felt my day being wasted. His foggy blue eyes turned my direction and gazed over me like a painting in a museum. His lips parted and I was almost surprised to see he had lips. It was the first time I noticed them beyond his hair and eyeballs and the giant friggin' sword he had.

"I'll be blunt," he said, as if he had never been straightforward with me before. It was almost insulting. "The image... the presentation you set forth, anyway..." So much for being blunt. He was sawing away at my skin and was ready to hit the bone, just not before I bled to death. "You carry a contorted and endless darkness, Riku. A darkness that just looking into your eyes," He did so for a moment, a mutual awkward silence tightening around our necks. It didn't take him long to get sick of my face and spin his face in the other direction. "Fogs my mind and steps on my spirit. I can't even think."

The memories of Cloud stumbling on two separate occasions suddenly became clear to me. Whatever darkness he was talking about, which gave me a grasping, unnerving feeling in my intestines, had jarred him enough to malfunction even in a battle. The more I contemplated it, however, the harder I had to ward off a laugh boiling up inside. It was inevitable and caught looked completely offended for that instant.

"Darkness?" I chuckled. "The Hell are you on about? I'm obviously not evil or anything. I'm trying to _save_ Sora!" I shook my head, resting it on my knees. "Jeez." Cloud tapped his fingers on his own knee, befallen to silence. I felt I had finally won a battle until he opened his mouth again.

"I... know darkness," Wasn't the last thing I expected to hear but it did surprise me anyway. "You don't understand anything. (I started to object.) You don't!" He brushed his golden hair behind his ear, away from his heart. He looked so lost in the world he just chased himself into. "You don't know _anything_ about what happening; you don't know what is going to happen when everything comes to pass; you don't know what the Heartless are - You know _NOTHING_! You wouldn't know the darkness if it tore your body in half and ripped your heart out!" He was screaming. He was screaming so loud and it wasn't at me. It's a weird way to describe it but even though the words were for me, he didn't seem to be directing them to me. It felt like Cloud had dug himself into a deep memory and was drowning, deeper... deeper into an ocean and further from the sun. Reaching, reaching...

"_You know nothing because you ARE NOTHING!_" He snapped to his feet, grabbing at the handle of his sword. I immediately panicked, assuming he had been blinded enough to start killing without a conscience and I didn't want to be mistaken for something expendable. Fear disabled my legs, leaving me to sit in my own mess and watch him turn for me, poses erratic and unsure of what he was going to strike. I was so afraid... I didn't want to die through such recklessness.

"Cloud!" Before I could register anything else or plea with some unknown figure to spare my life, he was mauled into the ground with his arms pinned tightly. "Cloud! Stop!" Under Leon's pressure he kicked and screamed and howled toward the moon for freedom, to continue the rampage I very nearly came with head on. I began to wonder, though. Had I done that to him? With my _darkness_?

Leon pressed his forehead into the other's, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth at the tough leather smacks of both skulls colliding. "It's okay!" He was yelling at him. "I'm here! The darkness is gone! He's not here anymore! CLOUD! Open your eyes!" He did, almost immediately. I was looking for relief in myself while watching the fear sink in a watery grave in his eyes. He curled his wrists to try and touch Leon's hands with his own, fingers red with blood from the circulation loss.

"No..." Cloud whispered and closed his eyes again. Leon let go of his limbs and lifted his upper body into his arms, holding him tightly. "The darkne - "

"There's no darkness here. Only light. Remember. Light, Cloud. The shining rays that entangle your arms and legs. Remember that in your heart." I secretly wanted to see Cloud cry. I wanted to see that piece of weakness spring to life on his face, fleeting from those cold, harsh eyes only to dry away into the sky. I wanted to see someone as strong as him be humanized. I never did. Leon was crying for him.

And I began to remember.

"_Sora! Stop it!_"

"_Why! Why, Riku! It's not fair! What he did!"_

_"Not like this, Sora. It's life... This is what happens. It's natural. You can't be mad at him for just trying to survive."_

_"But... what about their lives? What about the lives eaten away by a dark death? ... Riku?"_

No one saw me off. I found Cid in the ship when I got back to it and he gave me no explanation as to why he departed from me. I didn't really care. He did make the comment I looked rougher upon return than when I had left but I didn't think about it either. I rested my elbow on the arm rest after take off and just stared off into space. That memory had come back so randomly that I was trying to remember it clearly right down to every detail. It was the first time I had seen Sora get angry enough to hurt someone. It was a bit of a reality breaker for me at the time. I knew I must've pushed it away from my mind due to every new event occurring where Sora had a bad name. That recollection only supported his ability to be violent.

I caressed the soft scarf under my other arm with my fingers, as if stroking a rose gently to feel it's petals without harming its beauty. I picked it up and studied it further. I thought: Even a rose torn from its thorny stem will still attract the dangerous bees.

* * *

Again, I'm so sorry. This is humiliating... This chapter is most definitely on my dislike list and not of my best work. I hope the ending made up for it AND I just hope you look forward to Agrabah because bigger and BETTER things are gonna happen! Just wait and see! I'm excited. :D

But first... A side story. What was that memory anyway? We'll see:O


	9. Agrabah Pt 1

**Mikenno says:**

News Flash: Kris lied and skipped the side story this time. Now back to the following two chapters.

AGRABAAAAAAH. I hope this chapter turns out okay. I'm just getting over a bad writer's block. Had a really bad two weeks. T-T

P.S. OMG! T-T I had all this stuff written out and for some reason it didn't save! ;-; I had to rewrite it all and it doesn't sound nearly as good as it had...

P.S.S Sorry this chapter took so long. I caught the stomach flu and died for about a week and a half. I wrote a lot of this while sick so.. ;.;

* * *

**Agrabah**

I represented the image of a king at a loss on his throne. My one leg crossed over the other; my chin propped up on my palm of my hand, elbow pressured into the arm rest; my eyes gazed out into the open space. Contemplating war, peace, finances, and my children that will pave the road to our future. Well, that was getting a little far ahead, but all the same...

"Never seen ya look so... out of it," Cid's voice presented itself before me. I looked up at his strong, bristled chin with only a swish of my eyes. I spoke through blinking whenever I needed to. "Really."

"Where did you go after I followed Leon?" I finally asked him after having been on the ship for a couple days. "You just disappeared before we got to his house." Cid scraped the back of his head with his nails, humming an explanation to everything. I think the mystery of life was somewhere in that mess.

"Well, to be honest," He sighed and leaned closer to the camera to tell a secret. "Leon was from Traverse Town. Not originally - his home world was destroyed." I was blinking in emotional responses as well. "Eh.. There's just a couple o' girls here that I wanted him to stay and take care of." He leaned back again to show himself off more and keep my interests, which he had regardless. "While they keep telling me they're fine without him, It offends me ta see a lady left behind without care. He just took fascination in Cloud and ran off after I said what I thought."

"So you didn't want to see him because of what you said to him?" Cid nodded. I finally let my eye exit the stage. "Well, you can take care of them, right?" I smiled up at him, the first real smile I felt in days. "Don't tell me you're really an incapable old man, Cid."

"Don't push it, kid. I'll blow the ship up," He was grinning past his threat and gave a deep sigh just after. He seemed ready to talk again when I caught him staring at my chest. I looked down at myself and back up at him. When inquired, he replied, "Nothin'. You look stronger for some reason."

"Good to know," Which it was. I didn't feel as powerful as I apparently looked. My mind was beginning to wander again, my fingers tangling in Sora's scarf ever since I left Olympus Colliseum.

_Tears._

My lips parted to take some air.

"_It's okay!"_

The image was burned in my mind.

_"Open your eyes!"_

I blinked again and again.

"_Light..._"

Darkness... I clutched my chest.

"_Remember that in your heart._"

"_You carry a contorted and endless darkness..._"

Inside me... In my heart there was -

"_Riku._" Sora's smile. His eyes darkened, the color in his face melting away like a wax candle in a burning house. Eye falling out of his skull, a shadow fuming out of his socket. He reached forward, fingers rotten and bones crackling - "_Die._"

"Riku," I gasped a little and looked up toward Cid. He was looking at another monitor on his end. "Look ahead." I stood up from my chair and walked up to the plate of glass, resting a hand on its frigid surface. From what I could see, there was a small orange dot in the distance. "It's another world. The ship's locked onto its coordinates." My fingers slid down the window, clearing away the mist and fog that blanketed it. I hadn't noticed how warm the cockpit felt; I felt particularly chilly.

"Wonder what kind of world it is," I thought aloud and Cid tapped his chin to perform for me. Neither of us declared any idea of an answer to that and I sat back down to watch the ship migrate toward it. I found my eyes returning downward as they had been for a good while and resting in peace on the silver amulet. I still find it funny how something so small and simple could mean the world to you when you detach the chains that make it matter in the first place. It becomes all you have left to care for and hold onto when everything else falls away from you. Wearing it makes you feel as if they're sitting beside you.

"I bet that world has a lot of candy," I looked toward the arm of the chair, Sora sitting on it and smiling toward the stars; they shimmered in those glamorous sapphire eyes. "Candy and good food. It looks like an orange gumball from here." He reached forward to snatch it up in his hand. I only watched him. "Yeah." He smiled down at me, pearly whites and all. "Candy land, Riku! Let's go together."

I curled my fingers together; resting my elbows on the cold, empty arm rests. "Yeah," I mumbled to myself. "Let's go together."

"Yer gettin' better at landing, Riku," Cid tried complimenting but I found myself mostly untouched. I was a crappy pilot, I knew that much, but I didn't want to hear I was getting better. I wasn't intending to become good at it. I didn't want to be flying it as long as I already had.

"Thanks," I said anyway. I lowered the ladder down and descended cautiously. As I jumped off the last bar, my feet dug their toes into the burning hot sand, which I only knew was hot because my black boots became open-toe sandals. I felt the whirl of a desert storm dancing around me, her gentle finger tips scaling every inch of my body to dress me. Baggy black pants with barely a partition from the ankles to the crotch puffed out from my hips and grasped at the bones above my feet; I could feel the scratches of dust and dirt against my bare stomach and the weight of white robes draping over my shoulders as if I were a curtain rod. The silver hair that would normally brush against my cheeks was being tugged back by black and crimson amulets, which also upheld part of the blank cloths that kept the sun off my neck. My chain binded the fabric against my chest, half a silver crown holding the pieces together.

I lifted my fingers to graze over the clasps on either side of my head and I outlined them precisely. I knew the shape, oddly enough. They were both small, beautifully detailed black scorpions with red jewels encrusted into their backs. I smiled a little sadistically and reached behind my head to pull the leftover sheet over the rest of my hair. I was obviously in some form of an Arabian-based world.

"I'm staying here again," I looked back to Cid with surprise. He shouldn't have had a reason that time. "I don't think my little tin can here will function in the extreme heat."

I scoffed. "You make me feel so lonely, Cid. I'm almost starting to miss your big mouth." He mumbled his precious curses after me as I carried on. It was hard to blend in with a UFO following you anyway. I followed my ears to the crowds and their psychotic mass of noise pollution, among other things. It was such an amazing flow of life to behold for simply a marketplace. Caravans gobbled up the dirt roads, the clogging heels of camels distracting my own foot steps. I wanted to move in sync with them, their rhythm conquering most of anything else I could hear. Yells of upset trades and exploding fists, the pleased clapping of fulfilled promises and money deals ringing with satiable laughter. The atmosphere was overwhelming, to say the least.

I found myself to be noticed by random beats of eyelashes and many older men with greasy hair and black eyes watching me from their stands in the shadows. I must've appeared rich in my attire, though far from the case was the harshness of reality.

"Hold it! STOP! HALT! Damn it, Street Rat!" I ducked as if I had been found out but instead I discovered a man with black hair fleeing. His purple vest flapped behind him and his pants were similar to mine only white and were dirtier and worn from his running and obvious long-time ownership. I turned away, assuming him to be a reckless thief but then as he looked over his shoulder from climbing up windows and bricks, I caught a glimpse of his eyes. They were huge, almost surreal to investigate. I wanted to slap myself to see if they'd become thin and beady but they never did change. He didn't _look_ like a bad person. This may have lead to my sudden impulse to run toward the commotion.

I was careful in my approach, looking around for anything that could help him. He was hanging by a second story window, the men chasing him closing in. They wore big hats with royal feathers and I could only assume they were like police officers. Their curved swords were bigger than most heads, wiggling like pitchforks from Hell under the poor man. I turned my head just in time to spot a stand with handmade blankets hanging off rods erect from the poles holding it together. I ran up to it and snatched one off, ignoring the poor merchant hollering behind me. I snuck through the crowds as swiftly as I could until I was close enough to do any decent damage.

While nothing serious, I merely flung the blanket right over the three heads of authority. It was huge and thick to lay on anyone so to see them struggling in a bubbling pile was amusing - then the sword stabbed through. I made eye contact with the young man and received a smile of thanks. He climbed into the window and disappeared. Relieved, I quickly came to the decision to do just the same. Those swords looked _sharp_ as a mother and I wasn't about to test their capabilities head on. I escaped toward the same building into an alley way.

My foot steps echoing were beginning to terrify me, constantly leading me to believe I was being pursued. Luckily they must not have seen me run away because they never followed. However, I did meet someone.

"Hey!" I screamed at the man hanging upside down before me. It was the Arabian Tarzan! "Woah, woah" He flipped around onto his feet with a small blush in his tanned cheeks. "Sorry! Didn't mean to scare you."

Little late for that, I thought as I clutched at my chest.

"Thank you," He cocked his head at me, looking rather sweet for being really dirty. "For helping me out back there, I mean."

"Yeah, sure... You didn't seem like a bad person but what was that about?" I figured I may as well see what I had just done. For all I know, I just let an insane criminal run free.

He took a seat on the sturdiest crate he could find. "Well, they were - Oh!" He stood up again; snap stretching his arm out toward me, fingers spread widely. "I'm Aladdin." I accepted his hand, said my name and he nodded. What a dork, I couldn't help but think. He was slick, though, I could tell that much about him. He sat back down and continued. "Those were royal guards." A sudden feeling of gloom displaced me. Maybe I had truly just helped a criminal. "But Jafar made them go after me! He kidnapped her! He has Jasmine!"

I stared at him rather blankly. Jafar? Jasmine? Was I supposed to _know_ those names? Yes. I _was_. I was from this world, after all. "I'm sorry. I'm not from around here," I slipped in. "Who are they?" Smooth.

Aladdin pointed toward the sky just after I shut my mouth. "Princess Jasmine." I looked over my shoulder, expecting to see an angel descending or at least this Jasmine girl falling out of a window, but my eyes betrothed a huge palace. I turned back to him. "She was taken by Jafar, one of the royal viziers. I don't know what he has planned but... I can't begin to imagine what's happened to the sultan. He has the whole palace in the palm of his hand. No - everything!" His eyes filled with a pained look, as if his imagination really couldn't handle what happened to the sultan person. Something had bothered me, though, so I decided to ask him a question and spare him his thought process.

"Aladdin, not to be rude but you don't look like someone who has anything to do with royalty." We both looked at his clothes and then each other. "Why are you so worried about them?" By the sudden creep of a blush on his face, I could only assume one of two things: He was in love with the princess or he had an odd infatuation for the sultan. I begged it to be the former because the latter would've made me walk right away.

"Well, don't say this to anyone but me and Jasmine... Well, we're kind of a secret... I mean - "

"What? Secret rendezvous?" I finished for him. He nodded. With a small smirk I felt bad for him. So it was the "prince" saving the princess, or trying to. Aladdin hugged one of his knees, the expression on his face timelessly miserable.

"I can't save her, though," He burrowed his eyes into his pants. "I just don't have that kind of power."

"But, Al! You forget me so soon? Your best buddy!" The voice that rang in my ears was playful and loud, someone who had attention at a party but could probably annoy you after awhile. Yeah, them. Aladdin looked up, as did I, and when I saw a huge blue man floating beside the Arabian boy my mind drew a white palette. The man looked toward me, his voice a rectangle of expressions unheard of. "Who's this, Al?"

"Riku," He replied and stood up. "Genie, I don't know if you can help this time. I mean I only have two wishes left and..."

"Wishes?" I asked, looking between them. He said genie. "Genie?" A genie! This was right out of a storybook I read as a child. "Amazing." Was all I could manage into the situation.

"That's right!" He cried and threw his huge arm around me. He pulled me close, that enormous blueberry face in mine. "The famous Genie from the lamp! But no time for introductions. We have a princess to save! Just give me the word, Al!"

"Wish for Jasmine to be here, Aladdin," I suggested. "It'd save you the trouble of finding her and facing Jafar, right?" By the look on his face, however, I learned quickly that my suggestion must've already been considered.

"It's not that easy. Even if I wish for Jasmine and her father to be here and okay, Jafar still holds the palace. He could easily take her back from me with that power."

"Use the last wish to save the palace of Jafar then!" He looked even _more_ dismayed by that. "What? What's wrong with i. _that_?"

"I promised Genie I'd free him with my last wish!" Aladdin looked at him with a warm smile, sincere and not of guilt. I hadn't seen someone so genuinely thoughtful for a long time. "So I can't."

I rested my fingertips on my lips, thoughts fluttering in my skull in search of answers for this predicament. "Then..." He clenched my fist and grinned at him. "We'll fight for it!" Aladdin perked up with my enthusiasm, which is all I think he really needed. A pat on the back, a small shove, and the right way to go. "By the way you were dodging those guards, I wouldn't be able to believe ya if you said you didn't have _some_ moves."

He offered me a coy smile and simply nodded in response. Genie gave a strong holler and began to swing his arms wildly. He suddenly looked like a cheerleader with pink pom-poms, bouncing back and forth with curly blonde pigtails flailing off his head.

"GOOOOO Al! GOOOOO Riku! Riku! Al! Riku and Al! Riku and Al! Sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-!"

"Genie!" We both shouted at him, not wanting him to continue that any further. He laughed it off with an apology and Aladdin and I shared a mutual chuckle.

He led the way to his home, which for a "street rat" was very comfortable. The room was made from his dreams, his escapades, and any empty spots held hopes for future endeavors. It was built for him, I thought. The way he'd sway through the piles of timeless treasures, every path memorized in the lot he had formed. I could only follow and hope I wouldn't bump into anything. Aladdin had gathered what he felt he would need, including a nice falchion that would probably cut through a tree if sharpened a little more. While he got ready, I hung out his window and watched the Marketplace go by.

The atmosphere was still powerful, even when risen above it. Watching children play, despite their lineage or birth rights of being absolutely poor, was a wonderful experience to see. They didn't need money to enjoy the time they had with each other. I believed that is what kept Aladdin going. But by the looks of his room, he seemed to be a bit of a thief. I highly doubt he bought the golden pendants hanging on his wall. I didn't mind, however. His kind heart overlapped any minor details such as thievery.

I leaned out the window further to watch a boy chase a ball into the alley way. It was interesting for two reasons. The boy looked like Tidus back home. Same crazed blonde hair and dark skin. I almost swore he had followed me somehow. He was way too small to be Tidus, though. The second reason didn't show up until after I had followed Tidus-boy with my eyes down that outside hall, because it was then the ball bumped into someone. The taller figure, draped in robes, slowly bent over and picked up the ball. The atmosphere they presented made me sickeningly nervous, the weight of the oxygen increasing, growing into thick chunks I'd have to suck through a straw just to survive. The boy only smiled.

"Hey! It's you again, mister!" The robed man handed the ball back to him with no response. "Why don't you come play with us?" He shook his head very slowly. "Ya sure?" He nodded just as leisurely. "Well, like I said before, if you change your mind, we're always here to play!" He turned away from him and tap tapped his way down the sandy stones back to the other children. The man stood still until he ran away. His hand then rose to the base of his neck and rested there. With that he looked up and around, seemingly missing me since I couldn't see his face, and walked away.

I looked down to my chest, my hand resting just over my neck's base, too. My necklace no longer was there, the crown holding the sashes on my shoulders together for me. I looked away to see how Aladdin was doing and when I found him levitating, it shot right over my head. I looked up at him and just held a hand up in inquiry.

"It's a magic carpet," Came a quick explanation. I nodded and waved it off, the shock not even taking the time to get to me. I didn't want to ask.

An Arabian night indeed. The city was the opposite of what it had been in the day time, the myriad of dark alleys and darker figures lurking every nook and cranny of Agrabah, the name of the kingdom I found myself in. Luckily for me, I was soaring above it all on the mystical throw rug and was far from harm's way, should it come. This was ironic, really, since we were heading right for it anyway.

I suddenly grabbed at my chest, something inside of me burning. It was a different sensation than when the keyblade would draw forth and was almost too painful to just ignore as something like heart burn. I squeezed my eyes shut, singed to tears, and felt Aladdin's hand on my back.

"I'm fine," I quickly answered. A bit snappy, to boot. He took his hand back and looked ahead on the path we had set forth. I didn't have the time to feel guilty or apologize when the Arabian boy jerked his finger out.

"The palace!" He bellowed against the wind. The agony in my body subsided in time for me to catch his call and give the rightfully large palace a respectful gaze. It wasn't long after the carpet had dropped us just inside the gate and soared off to keep out of danger and away from the one's who'd bring it. I looked up at Aladdin.

"I'll watch this side," I pointed toward my right and Aladdin noted he'd do the same on the other side. Genie held the front and back, bulging eyes popping up on the back of his skull. How disturbing that truly is, I thought and immediately kept to watching my side. Halfway in and I knew something wasn't right when nothing had stopped us. We all felt it but no one said anything. All we could do was keep our guard up. Even further in made us even more unnerved.

"Where is everyone? The guards?" Aladdin looked at the back of my neck.

"Watch your side," I instructed, feeling his stare. When it was gone, I answered him. "This is definitely a trap. Jafar doesn't sound like a stupid guy if he's a vizier." I heard Aladdin groan to himself; I must've been right. My feet were sweating in the cold heat of the desert, shifting under me against the convenient stone placing. Little sand degraded the garden we stood inside, everything around us threaded and weaved together by a single string of life. Maybe the palace had been built on an oasis.

Thinking set aside for another time, we kept our moves as slow as possible. Too fast and we surely would've fallen into a trick set by Jafar. Then we all stopped. I felt it, the presence of something hostile, and by Aladdin's swishing head to try and find it, he felt it just as strong as I did. Fear is an amazing enhancer to the senses, isn't it? The strengthening of your sensitivity to the heart's of others, sinister or pure, and the physical adrenaline that flows in your veins. It's steroids without the disgusting side effects.

"Al!" I and Aladdin spun around to see Genie pointing toward the sky. Upon a lower balcony, a hand clinging to the rail beneath his feet, was the man I had seen in the alley. His robes fluttered in the sweet, gentle breeze, the smell of flowers making my nose twitch. It was almost too perfect a night to be draped in the clothes I was.

What a beautiful evening for a battle.

A tall, skinny man with a beard like a snake and a hat that could outmatch boulders approached from behind him, the disdainful atmosphere around that smirk of his allowing me to assume he was the target: Jafar.

"Oh, street rat! Welcome to my humble abode," He chuckled out. Aladdin bared his fangs, pulling the sword from his belt.

"Jafar!" He roared. "Let Jasmine and the sultan go!" Jafar would do no such thing, or so he said for himself, laughing at Aladdin's poor effort to negotiate. "Then fight!"

"I need not to!" I grabbed my chest again, biting my lip enough to eat it whole. "I have people to take care of that for me." He tapped the back of the gargoyle on the railing, sending him to his feet. "Go."

We all leapt away when he landed before us, crouched to the ground in a huddle of robes. He gave the appearance of a phantom without limbs, gliding around to make his kill in an unpleasant and creepy way. I almost couldn't concentrate on him. Then something strange happened. He lifted his arm up enough to trail away the robes from his bare, pale hands. A light of the utmost spectacular facade swirled and swayed from the palm of his hand, tangling and planning with the other sparks on what exactly to do with themselves. They then came up with a brilliant plan: Let's form a giant key.

Everything hit my brain at once: The gold handle; the leather banding around the center bar inside; the silver chain with the triple-circle pendant; The long, grey handle, the crown welded into its tip - "The keyblade." Jane's picture; Sora's expression; Leon and Cloud's arguments; _My_ keyblade.

"Riku...

_Die._"

When the weight defied gravity and rose from the grave again, his head was leaning back, nose and chin toward the sky. When he curved himself forward, lanky figure much more obvious, his hood slipped away from his messy brunette hair and revealed lifeless blue eyes embedded like dull rocks into a wedding ring. I could ignore the pain in my chest then. It was enough to tear my muscles apart and make my torso explode into a million pieces... but the places I've been and the people I've seen and the trials I have so far faced and this pain, this undeniable and relentless pain... Had nothing on what was right in front of me.

"Go now! Attack!" His eyes met mine and he never moved. Only stared at me, not feeling anything toward me. Just a porcelain doll on a shelf, glass eyes staring out the shop window for all eternity. "Do not delay, boy!"

"His name isn't boy!" I screamed. Aladdin and Genie had their attention on me this time. "Call him by his rightful name!" I gritted my teeth, grinding them in my infuriation.

"His name is SORA! Call him Sora!"

And Sora only gazed on.

* * *

Yay! Finally! It's Soorraaa! And I finally finished this chapter. It's not even that long but took me forever. Myrr. ;-; Hope you enjoy it anyway. Agrabah Part 2 coming up then! Sorry for skipping the side story. 


	10. Agrabah Pt 2

**Mikenno says:**

Kukuku... Be weary. This chapter contains graphical scenes of the gore kind. Sort of. Just know it might be disturbing. secretly enjoys every moment of it

P.S. Guilty Gear XX - Existence (Vocal) AND Angela Aki - Kokoro no Senshi ANNDDD Devil May Cry 3 - Devils Never Cry. :D (Music that helps. :3)

* * *

**Agrabah**

Ever have something so wonderful happen to you that you cast yourself into a state of denial just to keep the blood from bursting out of your nose? It's like processing the stages of grief minus the tragedy, until you come to realize that, like a Shakespearian play; all the comedy meets its inevitable doom. The story truly is sad in its demise and after the laughter you're left with tears.

I felt happy. The boy I had been hunting down for over a year was finally standing before me. What I saw was Sora. Brown hair, blue eyes, silver chain swirled around his neck, shimmering in reminder; arms outstretched and goofy grin in stone. The Sora I remember.

Then I was sad. Because what was really there was a creature dressed in human flesh and drags, hair dirty and eyes dulled. No longer human but an automation under the influence of darkness and evil. That innocence and sense of justice that coexisted foolishly in one brain had deceased from the world it once knew. If it was still there, it was sleeping in a closet inside a dark, dank mansion; beaten by its adopted parents and starved to the bone.

Sora gripped the handle of his keyblade. I could hear his skin scraping against it, my senses so focused on him that every breath he took was amplified into my skull. Every slight movement registered and even when the wind caught his clothing, it was all in slow motion. He appeared just as observant of me as I was of him but the eerie presence he set forth along with the murderous intent he spewed from every pore was terrifying and disheartening my will to keep my attention on him.

"Do not delay, boy! Kill them!" When Sora didn't move, I felt a drop of hope in my puddle of doubt. Did seeing me make him realize he's safe? That he didn't have to listen to these people anymore? He was kidnapped and taken hostage. They told Sora if he didn't work for them, they'd kill him. But he knew I would come to save him. So he wasn't attacking. He stopped listening.

I smiled. "Sora!" I cried out to him. "I came for you, Sora!" His hollow gaze didn't seem enlightened by that fact at all. "You can stop now! I'm here!" He turned his eyes downward, casting them away from me. Something in my body slammed against my feet and I didn't need to guess twice on what just dropped into the Earth. "Sora?"

"What are you doing? Kill him!" Jafar raged into the night. Sora's dead face found a twisted smile, someone having taken a ghostly knife and gashed open his mouth's ends. It curved up so far on his face, cheeks unaccounted for, the blood red shadows inside his mouth representing his new favorite color. His eyes became vacant pits of darkness, worms and maggots the appropriate residents from then on out. He was hollow. An unoccupied body with no concept of pain or misery. Only falsified joy in his supposed new passion: slaughter.

So he rushed forward. When he got to me, it was just Sora as empty as he had been before my hallucination, though he struck me hard enough in the head to stir up another one. My body soared across the wind until it came to a burning smash against the stone steps and I made sure to skid, skip, and hit everything on my way down before lying flat on my face some good feet away. I couldn't even get up before I felt his blade slam into my back. I heard it crack and all I could do was scream. My face was soaked with blood and tears, Aladdin shouting my name in the background just barely heard past the breaking bones in my body. Snap. Crack. Crunch. Pop. I felt like a bowl of cereal was shoved into my ears, milk being dumped all over my skull. ... Just to give a less dramatic outlook on it.

I couldn't see by the time Sora had me on my back, holding my arm into the air as if he were going to help me up. I would've laughed at the idea if I hadn't been writhing in pain. I could feel his fingers sliding up from my elbow to my wrist, gentle and kind fingers, heavy and torturing foot on my broken chest. Sora was still faceless, even as he tore my arm out of its socket with a disgusting squish and the special agonizing sob from me. I couldn't think of what had allowed me to let Sora take my body this far into despair. Why didn't I fight back?

I figured it could not get much worse. He dealt the damage and that was it. He'd stop, show me off, and wander away back to being a heartless bastard of a friend. In my breath of relief, I merely fooled myself. The impact I had suddenly felt against my brain made it rattle, anything inside clanking around. My cheek was in the dirt and the other was making to go through my mouth and greet its other half. And then I went blind in one eye. I tried to blink and I couldn't, for with my one good eye I saw the other roll away, collecting sand and pebbles in its wake.

I remember thinking that this couldn't be Sora as the warm drool of red liquid streamed across my face. That I should kill this clone immediately and continue my search. But the chain around his neck... I couldn't imagine that ever being replicated. I could feel it pulling me in like a black hole of purity, closer to his heart - closer to my own. Then I felt my body hit the floor and Sora was quite a few feet back. He was gripping at his chest, staring down at my good-as-a-corpse figure with an unscarred face, unchanged but still expressing dismay.

"Genie! My second wish!" I twisted to try and see Aladdin and noticed he had a few cuts and bruises of his own, his feet scratched up with filthy blood and his sword swung off behind him. I hadn't noticed he had tried saving me from Sora at some point. To save me _from_ Sora was a gut-wrenching thought in itself. "Completely heal Riku!"

"Right away, Al!" Genie slid over to my side, dressed in a conventional nurse's outfit. "Okay, little boy." He said in a poorly mocked feminine voice. "We're gonna fix you right up! Say 'Aahhh'" I gave him an "Aah" only it was me crying in excruciating torment. After that he was pretty quick about defying gravity for my limbs in a glorious white light. I felt the breath of life against my lips as I curved upright to my feet and stood on the Earth by myself again. My skin absorbed my blood like a sponge and every gash sewed itself together and molded back to normal. I blinked and found my vision restored and everything seemed to look much more beautiful when I had both eyes. I was as good as new and Sora didn't seem to care.

I threw my arm out, not preparing to risk any further injury to myself and make Aladdin's second wish be in vain. That expressionless face watched my own type of light spew forth, swirling into my gripped fist with its veins pulsing through my pale skin. My keyblade formed quite beautifully, as it always had, and the robes around my shoulders grew lighter. With a slash toward Sora to promote my new weaponry, my robes danced out behind me and soared off my head, flying away into the sky in exhilarating freedom. I was only left in the tight charcoal shirt that was obscured by the robes and the air against my lower back and stomach felt absolutely refreshing, albeit chilly.

It had become a staring contest rather than a challenge of feats. I looked over at my blade for a moment, studying the embracing wing of the angel inside my weaponry and noticed it looked a little further than normal. I may have dented it in my practice fights against Cloud and Leon so I ignored it and returned my attention back to my... enemy. Sora was resting a hand on his head by then. He looked as if he had a torturing headache taking over his thoughts. I lowered my weapon cautiously, not willing to disregard any idea that he may be feigning pain to distract me. He looked toward me with a disgruntled face, reminding me of a young child that didn't know why he was being punished. That face where the nose crinkled slightly and such a poutful look came across their expression - Yes, that one. I was an evil parent at that moment.

"Damn it!" I looked toward Aladdin's booming voice. "Jafar got away! With Jasmine!" I muttered a curse to myself at the update, failing to protect while being selfish. At the same time, I didn't mind being so self-centered. Sora was the only problem I decided to actually worry about and nothing else need concern me. Then, with a disturbing lobe of black opening behind his body, Sora let his keyblade vanish.

"Sora!" I found myself running. My legs just began to move on their own, my brain having no actual say in what my nerves decided to do with the rest of me. I let my own keyblade disappear in the wind that resisted my movements, my emblem resurfacing around my neck. Was it going to take cutting my arm off and throwing it at Sora just to be able to grab him? Pull him out of the strands and straps of darkness swinging around his body, foul fingers tearing in between his lips, stabbing into his stomach and dragging him further away? "Sora..." What I had brought my arms around was only smoke and nothing more. In the end, I was back to holding myself and Sora, once again, had escaped my very reach. I dropped my arms limply and stared at the ground, stalemated and detestful.

"Riku, it was weird," I looked over my shoulder at Aladdin talking to me. He was slinking further and further into the wall of his home, melting and becoming part of the many objects that he had attained at one time or another. I caught him staring dejectedly at a golden goblet, not seeming very happy with that form of wealth anymore. "When Sora was fighting you, I mean."

"What _do you_ mean?" I was wishing he would just say it immediately rather than delay everything. He seemed to be thinking on how to do just that.

"That thing around your neck?" He pointed at my pendant and I clutched it in my fist out of sheer instinct. "It started glowing. Sora had one, too." I looked down at it during his explanation. "It was like... Your body just rose off the ground, two lights trying to come together." He laced his fingers to display what he was trying to say. Was a good thing, too, because he had me damned lost. "The lights! The lights on your chests, I mean. They were trying to connect."

I had caught on after letting those words settle into their new cozy home in my mind. Sora's pendant... along with mine, of course - they were trying to connect to each other? I walked toward the only window he had and stared downward into the alley. I leaned out as I swore I saw the draped man once again, the one that I knew now had been Sora. If only I had met him then rather than in the face of a showdown, where a battle happening went without saying. His illusion cracked his neck to turn up but faded before he even had the chance. I felt my eyes sting.

"I'll find Jasmine," I openly declared after a moment of silence, turning to face him. The street boy looked up at me from his huddled ball in the corner. "Sora played a part in her getting taken away, right? I bet wherever I find him, I'll find her." He gave me such a deep look of _doubt_ that I almost wanted to drop kick him for being so hopeless. "Trust me, Aladdin. Just know that..." I lowered my gaze shamefully. "I'm sorry you used your second wish on me."

I could feel his warm smile on me. "Naaah. Don't say sorry for that. You got hurt pretty bad trying to help me out. I'm just glad you're okay," He rose to his feet and approached me, hand resting on my arm. "You'll save him." I looked up at that; surprised the roles had switched so suddenly. "You'll save Sora, Riku." My lips tightened together.

I hadn't left Agrabah quite yet. I was getting really close to doing so before I felt myself withdrawing. I wanted to be 100 sure that Sora wasn't in that desert Hell hole anymore and had moved on to the next world before I went hightailing it after him. Again, I was left by myself to muse. Miserably, at that. It was Sora. It was definitely Sora that stood before me as the heartless drone I had feared he'd become. I sunk into the side of the ladder attached to the gummi ship as far as I could, attempting to split my body into two messy chunks of man on the ground. I'd have preferred it then.

What did it all mean? Was this just some ridiculous nightmare that didn't feel like ending? In short, I was prepared to give up. I was so agitated to be collecting the pieces of my heart out from inside my shoes and between my toes that I was almost willing to abandon Sora to his god damned plans or whatever he had going on. If I was going to be left out, I frankly didn't give a fuck anymore. That was it. I decided not to care anymore. I wanted the answers, of course, but the means of which receiving them probably meant I'd have to beat the Hell out of my precious person and that wasn't going down if I could help it. But I wanted to just hit him at the same time!

I smashed my fist in the steel behind me. "What are you _doing_, Sora!"

Two hands rested against my eyes, shrouding everything before me in a blanket of black. "Isn't it a beautiful place, the paradise you see now?"

I blinked. No one was behind me when I checked and the world was as it had been a few moments before in front of me. My heart was in a rush to be nowhere, the flush of blood storming into my face in sudden excitement. Did I always imagine things when I got that angry? I suppose I wouldn't know. I might've mistaken them for real things happening. I got to my feet and tore the flowing robes off my shoulders, letting the scorching sun eat my pale, unshielded skin alive. It was warm at first, temperature rising into an unbearable roasting sizzle. I could already feel my skin peeling away, growing sensitive and dehydrated. It was then I found a small set of tongs smacking me in the forehead. They were attached to Cid's infamous flying saucer.

"Hell you doing, Riku? You're gonna get skin cancer and be ugly then die." I scowled at his remark. "What? Get inside." I stayed put. "...Did something happen?"

"How observant. I'm only sitting here being fucking miserable," I snarled. Cid jabbed at my skull again, cursing as he told me to watch my mouth. "Under the influence, Cid." I muttered, picking the wax out of my ear with my pinky. He fell silent, surely unable to deny that. I loved winning - truly.

He floated back into the ship, deciding to leave me where I was to be careless and learn my lesson. By the time I went numb from having my shoulders thoroughly broiled, I let the sun chase me inside the ship, back into the nice, cold shadows. I sat and relaxed, letting the frost of being away from the light soothe my sweat drops and calm my spirit. My corner was particularly secluded and dark, my eyes predatory against anything that came near me. Nothing did but Cid passing by was as close as I was going to get and I didn't think his metallic body felt the piercing gaze of a man in suffering. I began to feel worthless and weak with him there being a joy kill. My clothes, in the cool, crisp charcoal air that surrounded me, began to reform into what they once were and every time they did, I felt as if I had been sent through a rinse, spin, and dry cycle. I was fresh and new each time. Yet... back where I started.

I eventually caved in and let myself believe Sora wasn't around anymore. I don't know why I believed he would come to me if he had still been in Agrabah. I should've gone looking but somehow I understood I wouldn't find him. Not there. I got into the pilot's seat and cleared my throat. Cid's mechanical menace took a seat off to the side and his ugly mug jumped on the window screen before me.

"You gonna tell me what happened or what?" I shook my head and he sighed. "I'mma guess you found Sora and didn't like what you saw." I snirked; he smiled to have hit the nail on the head but said nothing of it. The ship took off no differently than any other time and back into the atmosphere and through the galaxy we soared. When I had relaxed and purged myself of all the anger the heat of Agrabah had set upon me, I slowly began to update Cid on what occurred. He seemed troubled so I asked about it.

"I know this has only happened twice so far but are ya noticing a small pattern?" I shook my head. "Well, that girl from Wonderland, 'member? They were goin' on about her. She was taken by Sora, right? That's what we gathered and assumed?" I nodded. The cat did say a brunette ran off with her. "Well... now another girl has been taken from a different world. And Sora helped."

"So... are you trying to tell me Sora is kidnapping girls?" Cid shrugged. "I don't see why he would." But that was just a surge of jealousy inside of me. Talk about a zeal for someone's heart. Yet with Sora as he was now, I wouldn't put it past him. "Don't see why..."

Cid leaned back in his chair on the other end. "D'you remember how I said Leon's home world was destroyed? ("Yeah," I said.) Well...It was my world, too. We all lost our homes to the Heartless."

I found myself to be very pissed off very suddenly. "Cid, do you know something more than what you let on?" He chuckled to himself like it was funny. It was not funny - at all. "Damn it, Cid!"

"Oi, watch yer mouth at me, boy. Look. I don't know all the details. 'Member that thing back in Wonderland that ya fought?" It was hard to forget something so damn huge coming at you like a crazed wind-up toy. I just let my head bobble rather than say that to him, though. "That was a heartless. We haven't really seen too many on this trip, though. I'm surprised but we're also pretty durn lucky."

"I'd have to agree," I howled, surprising Cid. "I hated fighting that thing!" I leaned into my chair, arms crossed against my chest. "Was crap."

"Well, that was a special type of Heartless; I think a one-of-a-kind thing. Ya have normal ones that are like citizens of a kingdom compared to that." He lit a cigarette up between his lips, giving a good inhale of smoke into his lungs before tearing them out in carbon dioxide and cancerous clouds. "I think if you could handle that thing, ye'll be alright."

"Let's hope you're right for once," I said jokingly in the most serious voice manageable. Cid offered a frosty glare, declaring his definitude to be without fault and I was a dirty liar. I went back to gazing through the only hole I had to gawk through. "What are Heartless like?" I asked.

"Thur called Heartless for a reason beyond the fact they honest ter God don't have any hearts," He exhaled. "Thur cruel and will amount ta killing if they so desire."

"Appealing," I murmured at no one. I watched out the window, sliding the tips of my fingernails in and out between my lips, tapping at the front of my teeth. I began to wonder if... Sora was one of them. But I couldn't be sure of that either way. I knew nothing about the Heartless, how they came to be, or even why they existed. In the end, I let the idea go completely. My tentative fingers found their shivering way back to my chain. Of course Sora couldn't be a Heartless. He'd never lose his heart... He'd never lose that desirable feature, that blend of his mind and soul. At least I had hoped that was the one and only truth. I even begged it to be so.

I didn't notice Cid had been watching me till he said something. "'Ey, kid..." I looked up blankly. "Yer gonna save Sora, alright? Ya may be kinda a punk but yer a good kid anyway." I went to admire my feet and I heard him messing around with something else with a humble sigh. I felt bad but I didn't feel like I was going to save anyone anymore.

Did Sora even want to be saved?

* * *

I'm sorry Sora's appearance was so brief. Don't be mad at me. ;-; I have so many plans that I really didn't want to use Sora up in this chapter. Just wanted to give you his new feel a test drive. What do you think?

The ending was a bit sudden, too... Also, I'm sorry this took SO LONG. I had a lot happening the past two months. But here you go. Just know I have no intention to abandon this story, no matter how long it takes me to write. Stay with me, please?

I know this wasn't a good chapter, either... ;-;


	11. Atlantica Pt 1

**Mikenno says:**

Submitted to an emo band. T-T Panic! At the Disco. Got sick of hearing their name and not their music. I don't even hear the lyrics, though. Just the background music. So I guess it's okay.

But to counter attack that! David Bowie - Bring Me the Disco King. Helped write a certain scene in this chapter. Maybe you'll know it when it comes.. It's near the beginning. (Only if you have heard the song, however.)

I think this is out of order, too. Monstro was supposed to come first... but I wanted to do a funnier chapter to make up for the last. I need to work on the side stories again! T----T! Watch this chapter be tedious.

P.S. Did I mention I'm planning a CoM AND KHII version of this. :D Yup! Excitement!

* * *

**Atlantica**

"... Cid, what is this?" We floated just out of the planet's atmosphere, slowly slinking back and forth at its border. Cid studied another screen in his place, blinking and bleeping and twitching all over the place.

"It's a world mostly consisting of H2O," He answered. "The source of life. The biggest ecosys - "

"That's nice and all," I chimed in, digging my nails into the arm rest of the captain's chair. "But how are we supposed to function there?" Cid slowly directed his attention on me, as if I had suddenly decided to appear and coexist in his life. He scratched at his stubble, grimly snored, and pointed his index finger at my face.

"I don't know!"

I screamed at his uselessness and stood up to stampede at the window in suicidal preparation. "Hey! Be careful, damn it!" I leaned on the glass, my cheek freezing up in its frosty bed. "Maybe it'll be like the other worlds." He was referring to the outfit changes in each place. Great. I would turn into a fish to be eaten by a shark. I sighed, not looking forward to it but if Sora was there, I _had to_ go. It had been a couple days since my Agrabah adventure from Satan's asscrack and my distress had lessened but never subsided. I needed to try and figure out what Sora was doing before I went getting mad, after all. But he did nearly kill me and that had to be taken into consideration.

We snapped into the planet's realm and floated over the ocean that appeared to consume three-fourths of the planet. I wasn't sure how we were going to go about this. I began to fly the ship around to try and find some land but it seemed like a distant dream to ask for something so convenient. Cid cleared his throat and my eyes were lead astray from the path.

"You know the ship can just float on its own, right? Doesn't function on gas but high-power - " I walked up to the screen and began to smash my first on it. Not hard enough to break it but enough to get my message through loud and clear. Cid, though not affected, was terribly offended. He taught me how to set up the auto-pilot and put it into park without landing before I walked toward the door and kicked it open with fierce sinew. Cid hollered after me something about 'damaging equipment' as I began shedding clothes off toward the floor. I stalled with my shirt, rubbing Sora's soft scarf around my neck in silent comfort, then tore it off and flung it with the rest of the pile. Boxers. I was left in boxers and a glittering silver chunk of jewelry. Cid eyed me from the monitor and I snapped my gaze at him.

"What? Quit being a pervert." That set him off.

"Pervert! I have no interest in scrawny little punk bitc - !" I leaped, arms out over my head, and dived into the sea.

I literally drowned out all the noises around me, spinning my body upside down and releasing all my air inside me. My weight sunk me further and deeper till the water grew chillier and icier. I was consumed by the power of glaciation, shivering and tingling till my body lost its feeling. I began to wonder if I was going to change into anything as my oxygen depleted and I had already lost the ability to swim. Then I thought about it: This wasn't so bad.

So what if I drowned right here and right now? I kept thinking that. It was much easier than chasing Sora all over the place, never finding him, and when I finally do, he's not the Sora I knew anyway. It hurt. The ice was so cold it began to severely hurt. If I weren't in the ocean, I'd have been shown for what I was - tears and weakness. I gasped in my silent death, the tiniest bubbles rising toward the surface. I had no air to release.

It wasn't so bad, feeling his thin arms encircle my naked waist. He didn't kick his legs or struggle to swim. His head rested against my chest, his warm cheek undisturbed by the water's temperature melting my skin. He listened silently to my dying heart, fingers digging into my skin. What I could see in the blur of the water flooding my pupils was his sad face looking down at me. Sora... Leaned into me, hands resting on my face. Gentle and light, strong against the ocean's crushing pressure. I sealed my eyes to go into that good night.

_Riku..._

I felt warmth against my lips, growing through my nerves, spreading beneath my eyes and around the back of my skull. Like hot chocolate pouring down my throat; the burn of it in my chest; a blanket embracing me on a winter morning; extra socks on my feet. I could feel my creaking muscles stretch against the weather, my back nearly snapping in two in its arc. A breath of air flooded my lungs, my gasp loud and my eyes opening louder. My vision was perfect, the world around me vibrant with colors and life. I twisted around till I was upright and looked around, breathing heavily in my realization that I had very nearly died.

I lost my balance. In the _water_. I tried to kick my legs but couldn't. I looked down to see what they were doing and screamed as loud as I could. I flipped upside down to investigate the new body I had but not intentionally. My tip kept curling in and out uncontrollably until I realized I was the one doing it, the skin hard and bumpy. It was a strange, teal color, my new flesh, and it took me a moment to recognize the shape.

"Seahorse!" I screamed again and grabbed my own tail to pull on it. I yelped in pain and tried to readjust myself back into a balanced nature. I managed (barely) to right myself and let the new factors sink in. This was the body that was going to allow me to survive in that world and I needed to learn to use it and appreciate it. My brain was wise, but I kept somersaulting trying to see every part of the body. Truly a moment of retardation on my part. I think my tail was in the air when I saw a small creature in front of my face. A very beautiful and brightly detailed seahorse was hovering in front of me. I could see the lashes on her eyes, which was terrifying in itself, and I twisted until I was able to see her in her proper picture. She got closer, batting her lashes.

"...What?" I asked her. She scooted closer with a cute coo. Her tail whacked into a sensitive part of my new body and I frowned at the curious sensation. It was then, Thank God, that I suddenly had a flashback into biology. The female seahorses, in order to reproduce, puts her eggs into the male's pouch and the male then secretes sperm into the eggs and bears the children, later giving birth to their new baby seahorses. ... Well, shit.

"No!" I exclaimed immediately. I saw a little bulge escape her body and, instinct be a blessed thing, I began to swim for my very manhood. As I escaped the one, I ran into _another_ and began to swim up and around. They seemed to be _everywhere_ rather suddenly. Was I the only male seahorse around? "Ladies! I wouldn't be a good choice! I'm not really a - !" As I swam past a giant stone shadowing the sands of the soaked Earth beneath me, an arm snatched me out of the path of hormonally crazed women and into the arms of another. I watched and waited, her arms around my head and keeping me close. I only knew it was a woman because I couldn't see through one eye, considering it was smashed into her breasts.

When the mob had disappeared, she let me go and sighed in relief. "Thank goodness..." I looked up to see a young girl with very outlandish bright red hair floating before me. I looked down and found what I had already expected: a fin. The mermaid looked around the rock in the dangers of the light and took me by my wrist again. "C'mon! Follow me to a safer place." Before I knew it, we were swimming away from where I had sunk to the bottom of the ocean and heading for a more populated area. I watched other mermaids dash by me on their way to work, to shop or something, some giving me strange looks as this girl swam me all the way through a small town. Might've been the partial potential baby sack that was attached to my hips.

She spun through "alleys" and tore through the "streets" until we arrived in a very refined area of the city. I don't know how I missed the giant palace we had been swimming toward, the swirls of miraculous gold streams spinning around even shinier aurulent towers. It was like an enormous coral reef of solidified honey and it appeared to be our destination. Just as we got to its gates, I found myself finally clutching back to her wrist, a fear washing over me. I didn't even know who she was and I was letting her take me to some beautiful, spacious castle? How ridiculous of me!

I chuckled at my own senseless fears and just let myself be mauled away. She did, however, land me in a safe room just within the palace and closed the seaweed curtains to conceal the both of us. When she was done, she spun to actually look at me. I did the same to her and she smiled. The girl swept up to the bed she threw me on and began to play with my tail. I twitched, laughed slightly, and began to try and swipe her away with the very object she desired. She sat up straight and rested a hand on her chest.

"I'm Ariel," She introduced herself. "You're not from here, right?" I cocked a brow at her but I supposed that answer was _pret-ty_ obvious. She giggled. "What's your name?"

"Do you always just... take weird strangers home, Ariel?" I had to ask and she laughed. She nodded and that became worrisome. "Riku." I answered her so it didn't come up again.

"Ri...ku?" I nodded. "Oh, your name?" I frowned that she wasn't even paying attention. "Interesting..." She nodded and floated up to move away. "Riku, stay here for a little bit. I have to make sure this room stays undisturbed." With that unnerving comment, she dolphin kicked her way out of the room gracefully. My tail was wagging in the water unconsciously, and I curled it up when I noticed. I flopped onto my side to lay on the bed available and wondered how they kept any of this from floating away. The material was different but comfortable and I assumed whatever it was made of was probably magical anyway. I had no doubts in any world. Or at least I shouldn't have.

I floated upward and snapped at the shelves to get a closer look, concluding that I had not yet prepared myself to function in this world when I smashed into everything rather than stopped as I had planned. Covered in queerly shaped pots and many jewels and pearls, I groaned and slunk deeper beneath them as Ariel returned to make sure I wasn't dead. She giggled brightly, swimming over to help the pathetic seahorse. "I don't know how to swim like this."

"I can _try_ to help," she offered, still holding my hand as I pathetically hovered. "Not too sure about..." She slapped me with her fin on my ass, which called for a yelp of sheer surprise. "Seahorse bodies, though." I chuckled to the best of my ability, the feignest noise imaginable. "I'm sorry. It's just funny."

"Oh, _hilarious_ - I assure you," I pointed at her face and she nodded. Was she really a redhead? However when she began to teach me, I began to learn. She did well in showing me how to swim straight, stop, and do other useful movements without harming myself. It was pleasant and I was grateful. After what must've been an hour of practice, I sat on the bed to relax and decided it was time to try and talk to Ariel. "Tell me," I initiated. "How did you know I wasn't from here?"

She rested her fingers on her lips. "We've had a lot of visitors lately. Not many were very nice, though," She gave me a cute smile. "But I knew somehow that you were a good person. I've been wrong before but you were different. Cute little boy running from seahorses, of all things." I blushed furiously to have been addressed that way. Flattered! But embarrassed. "So I couldn't _begin_ to imagine you'd do any harm!" I gave a coy smile. "But..." She frowned in return and sat beside me. "Daddy's been so upset lately. All these visitors are bothering him. He won't tell me why, either."

"Ariel," I rested a hand on her back. "Ariel, what are these visitors like?" Something inside of me knew this had something to do with Sora. I wasn't sure how or why but, deep down, I could feel that anything negative was going to lead back to me. This had been the case thus far. She had a lovely voice for singing. I could tell by the way she sing-songed before her replies.

"Similar to you... Except most of them seem violent. Or empty. And they have strange bodies." The last two words echoed inside my skull. "Like I thought one was a merboy at first, but his lower body was actually a..."

"A what?" I urged.

"Dolphin's. He has an extra pointed fin that I failed to notice at first but I saw it when he came for audience with Daddy." My vision sank like a rock into the sea. The sandy floor of the ocean reminded me of home, when we'd play in the wet sand on the beach all day, no cares in the world. Me, Sora, and Kairi. Building sand castles that rose to the sky and digging our own graves to shove each other in. Funny how scary an idea that was to me at that moment. I began to miss Kairi's company very deeply in my heart, her easy-going nature and calming smile making me homesick. I wanted to see her again but she hated me now. I was sure of it.

"Riku?" My vision gravitated appropriately toward Ariel's and she tapped my cheek gently with the tip of her fingers. "Are you tired from swimming practice?" I shook my head but then gradually began to bob it up and down. She let the water carry her away from the bed and I found myself floating after her, even as she talks about leaving me to sleep.

"Take me to him," She looked surprised but it was only then did I realize I had a firm grip on her arm. I let her go with a small 'sorry' and she hugged herself. "Please. Take me to see Sor - the dolphin boy." I pleaded sharply. She seemed concerned briefly but then took my hand into her once again.

"I'll take you there but I can't stay," We took of like birds to the sky. "He scares me." I flinched at her statement but, Hell, he scared me, too. Through coral and schools of my new cousins, riding currents and diving off cliffs, swearing to myself I couldn't get any deeper into the planet, I held my breath. For the most part, I accepted the heavy weight of my skull to be the fault of my necklace but even that had no real effect on me. I had bad vibes stabbing me like acupuncture needles from every which way, not to mention a glamorous migraine greeting me every chance it had. The area we swam into was dark and deserted, the ambience of loneliness engulfing my cold-blooded body. I was growing even sleepier.

By the time my surroundings made me more aware that I was indeed not dreaming of what I was indulging in, I took attention to Ariel's position to what felt like the other side of the sea. She waved slowly and flapped her tail's end at me to swim away. I was left alone in this place - this empty, soulless chasm. I wiggled my tail to struggle upward and then moved on with ease. I came upon a forest of seaweed, not allowing it to halt my mission in any way, shape, or form. After all, it was easy to move through; just tiring to not know when the other end would arise.

It came in due time, as most things do, and I was happy to have had the patience I did or I would've began to rip them all from the ground. I might have even brought the keyblade into it if I was pissed enough. No sign of Sora yet, however. I poked my head between the green cobwebs when I met their end and I was welcomed by a large, empty space. A circle of sand that could bear about ten people if placed right; some colorful stones fading into vivid dust; A young boy laying on a long stone; oceanic flowers blooming brightly without the sun; My ability to pay attention floating away toward the surface in a thousand particles; a cute little crab clacking it's way across the scene; the bubbles of my gasp popping in front of my face.

I couldn't resist being the stalker boy that drove up to his obsession's house everyday to stare up at the window and watch him sit there and watch the sky. To aim for the stars without making a move, only watching them drive like the phoenix - birth, life, death, and rebirth. An endless, continuing cycle of awe. Sora rested his hands on his stomach, brunette locks coiling at the surface, reaching for the stars they longed to see again. His cerulean eyes did not feel the same way. He was just lying on that rock all by himself, not moving even as I crawled from my hole to go to him. He continued to watch nothing, like a corpse with his eyes wide open, and I sat as best as I could with my seahorse figure on the rock beside him.

Neither of us made any move of anger or violence. I was convinced Sora would spring up to try and kill me as he had in Agrabah but he remained still. I looked over my shoulder very slowly; argentate hair o' mine fleeing in terror against my cheek.

"Sora," I whispered. Could he hear me? He didn't respond. I curved at my waist to lean closer to him. Was he dead? "Sora..." His eyes found mine. "Do you recognize me?" The look I had received... was agony. He gave me acknowledgement just to express in his new way that he had no idea who was speaking to him. I wasn't sure what to do. Ever so gingerly did a tentative hand rest on his chest, my fingers brushing against a familiar piece of jewelry: The half crown. Sora still had it on. Just knowing he still bore it was a bit of relief to me. He hadn't discarded one of the most important items we ever shared together and that was much better than not having anything at all to believe in.

I stumbled upon Sora's face when I had awoken from my terse bliss. It was directly facing my own and it was the most terrible image I ever had in my life. It was officially burned into the back of my skull for all of eternity; I took a deep breath and allowed it. He was responding to me, after all - I had no right to be picky about how ugly he had become. I smiled as best as I could without just sobbing pathetically and slid my hand from his soft skin and took his pendant into my fist. He looked down, baffled, and I found myself laughing. I showed mine to him and then began to tug gently on his chain. I was careful not to hurt or startle this virgin Sora from Hell, snapping the two pieces of the crown together. We both lifted our face at once and my eyes widened to practically have the tips of our noses brushing into one another's. I quickly closed my eyes and pulled away.

_"Ri - "_

The bridge of silver I had made between us collapsed and there was silence. Everything suddenly... grew to be vexatious. As his eyes changed their expression from blank to insubstantially amazed, I could feel myself crying. I had nothing to show for it but my gritted teeth and furrowed brows. Sora did nothing to comfort me.

It must've been an hour of just sitting with my puppet friend, sharing each other's reticent company like two deaf mutes in a park. I wanted to grab him and run but taking this Sora with me would probably do nothing to change who he had evolved into. Or had he devolved? Why had he grown up into such a wicked yet mindless soul? At what point did he let himself go, I wondered, believing to be as vile as he was acting. Was this all on purpose as revenge against me?

Had I actually done something?

My eyes hadn't left him and his hadn't bothered to meet my gaze. He wasn't going to respond to my words or my actions thus far. I began to wonder if I should take advantage of him, like the kiss that brought Sleeping Beauty to life. I found my frozen blood violently invading my cheeks and the idea was scrapped almost immediately. I wouldn't want to do something like that only to have it fail. It would go the Prince's kiss of life to Juliet's potential kiss of death. She inevitably stabbed herself, however, because Romeo failed to help her die. I chuckled at the morbid concept.

Sora sat up again and twisted his neck from side to side, looking around as if he had lost something.

"Sora? What is it, Sor - ?"

"Sora!" Barked a much louder voice from the reefs hidden in the weeds. Natural instincts made me rush off from the militant vocal and I hid from whence I came. I gasped to see Sora hadn't followed me and I started to go back out for him.

Then I receded. A man with a similar body structure to Sora came onto the field, though his lower half was of greater intimidation - A shark. His copper-toned arms reached toward my target and pulled him into his naked chest. "There you are, my boy," he said with a collective tone, much unlike when he had cried for him moments before. Sora had little reaction to him and gave no hint of attempting to do so as they drew apart. "You stayed here; I'm very proud of you." His long finger rested under Sora's chin, tilting his head back.

I snarled. Who the Hell was he to do that, I wondered while wishing for a whirlpool to tear him away or maybe a killer whale to fly by and eat him. When his glowing eyes found their way to me, I very nearly choked through my gills. It was brief, his bitter attention, and he waved a hand through the bubbles of the ocean to open a doorway to the place where Sora had last retreated in Agrabah. It always seemed like the world was marked to be much quicker than I, for the door snapped shut with them inside before my mind had a chance to let my body react. They were gone. Sora... and _him_.

"Riku!" My seahorse body would've squirted ink... had I been a squid instead. I didn't realize I had made my way back to the city outskirts where Ariel was patiently waiting for me, tangling her red hair nervously; patient but nervous. She was growing on me, even more so when she jet-streamed her body into mine, arms wrapped around my frame. "You're okay!"

I suppose she expected me to die. That's fine. Sora was a bit insane anyway. I hugged her back before scooting away. "Ariel, do you know who the man with that boy was?" She looked at me with the perfect blank expression. I found myself scouting for blonde hairs again and she swung her head side to side. Grumbling was the only reply I had to offer to her lack of assistance. She apologized and I ignored it.

We swam back to the living quarters, Ariel taking her precautions to have me remain unnoticed. When she got me into the room, she rambled something about needing to be somewhere and sped off like a bullet train. I had no further reason to remain in this place. I got up to leave.

And I was held back by the largest arm I had ever seen in my life. It was gentle at first, as if just to carefully redirect me back into the room - and then its gravity impacted my ribs hard enough to crush them under his power and my back met the wall with an excruciating crack. My blood floated past my eyes, surprising to me that I even had any in this new body. I looked to see my assailant and the portrait I saw was of a man with power and wisdom definitely under that golden crown of coral he bore proudly on his head, his beard that could out-maneuver Santa Claus swaying in the gently currents of the room. This merman did not look pleased to see me.

My hair blinded my one eye, refusing to get away from it, and I watched him blankly with the other. Somehow being half blind terrified me more, as if the final blow would come from where I could not see. But he didn't do anything aside from relieve me of the pressure he had set forth and took a course backwards and away to give me room. Now that I could breathe, I floated until I was resting on the bed, grabbing at the bruising chest I had been gifted with.

"Who are you?" He boomed.

"Riku," I coughed.

"Are you with the Heartless?" I didn't mean to, but I glared at him, and it was enough to make him feel threatened. His hand was big enough to wrap around my entire face, by the way. How did I know? Why, he tested it - on _my_ head. "Answer me!" He roared.

"No! I'm not with the Heartless!" I cried out, hoping I wasn't getting any skull fractures from his destructive grip. I heard crackling in my ears, but that very well could've been from the traumatic headache coming on. He let me go with that. Talk about an interrogation.

"You're not from this world," He declared. I suppose anyone would know that was obvious by the look of me. "What is your business in Atlantica?"

I decided not to delay my answers anymore. That had become a dangerous choice. "I'm searching for my friend. He was here but he's gone now. I'll be leaving, too. I'm not here to start anything." I couldn't go wrong by just spewing everything at once. At least I hoped I couldn't. This 'king' didn't seem displeased with my answer...

And then he was pulling at the chain on my neck. "That boy... That boy had this on. The key bearer." He knew. My green eyes bulged to hear those words. He shook his head and stopped strangling me. "Oh... the fate of the worlds can only lead to destruction..."

"What's your name?" I asked. I figured if we knew each other's name, it'd be more like we were friends. That was a concept many negotiators would use. It's easy to kill a stranger - harder to kill a friend. I doubt he would kill me but I wasn't going to risk any further injuries from the floating Helga's House of Pain.

"I am King Triton. The ruler of Atlantica. Ariel, the girl you've been with, is my daughter." Ouch, I thought. He knew she was hiding me. Had she told him? Either that or he found out and that's why he was there to beat the crap out of me. I was right about him being a king, which made me feel a little pleased with my usually shitty observation skills. "Riku," He sighed, turning to address me. "We have a very troubling situation on our hands."

I figured his conceit of being royalty wouldn't allow him to do something common on natural; however he sat beside me like anyone else would. "It's apparent that you are Sora's friend." He even knows his name. "The key bearer... is _very_ important to the fate of this and every other world." I didn't see why he was telling me this. To be honest, I didn't care. I just wanted Sora. "The master of the keyblade is as I thought: the bringer of destruction. Such is his fate." Woah, my brain snapped. Hold the phone. Sora was... _destined_ to be this way? Is that what this geezer was trying to tell me?

"I..." I laughed. "I don't understand. You're trying to tell me Sora is - " He did not look to be joking and I couldn't feel my stomach settling with that. "No - No! Sora isn't like that, King Triton!" He stood up, or at least he would've had he the legs. The look in his eyes made me doubt my very words. Sora had been pretty damn evil so far.

"It seems you don't know much about how the keyblade master functions," He started. Well, apparently not, since I had never felt so pissed off in my life by sheer confusion. "Riku, listen carefully. The master of the keyblade is destined to wield the power of destruction." He leaned closer. "However, if he chooses the path of light, his heart will be what saves everyone's lives." Triton leaned away, closing his eyes with a solemn face. "But the key had chosen a boy with darkness in his heart. So now we are only on our way to destruction. I hope you are prepared to be killed by your friend." It was all he had to say to me. He turned to go, muttering an order to leave his world before he destroyed me as well. How courteous of his majesty.

"Wait," I pushed off the bed and swam for him. "King Triton?" He stopped and looked over his shoulder. I held my hand out and called forth the keyblade. He shimmered its way to life and the king spun toward me like a game of spin the bottle. "Why...?" I asked, since he looked ready to have a heart attack. "Why can I do this?"

"What... What is this?" He moved not even a foot in front of me, studying the keyblade in my fist. "A keyblade?" I nodded. At least I was pretty sure it was by the way everyone had been freaking out over it. "This can't be _possible_!"

"Well, old man," I snorted, tired of being nice. His intimidation had faded due to his shock and for that I was grateful. I was just taking advantage of the situation and it felt pretty damn good. "It's happened. I don't know how but it looks like I'm a keyblade master, too."

"Young man," He started, disapproving as ever. I didn't like the tone of his voice, but I'm guessing he didn't enjoy mine, either. So much for bravery. "If this is the case, one of you must be the bringer of justice. Since your friend is obviously associated with the darkness, this must mean you." I felt a flutter in my heart to be told this. I finally had this feeling I was doing the right thing by chasing Sora, even if it was just for my own selfish needs.

"However..."

Son of a bitch!

"Sora's keyblade and yours are extremely different." Observant, Mr. Triton. What else did you notice? "While he's submitted into the shadows, you don't seem to be any different." His bitter expression left me breathless. What exactly was he trying to say? "Call it the sixth sense of an old man who has seen _enough_," He started to leave yet again. "Riku... if you are able to bear the keyblade, there must be a very good reason why." I let the blade fade away into nothing. "One bearer in the darkness is one too many." He finally exited.

Darkness. Darkness seemed to be playing a huge role in everyone's words when I reflected on it. Ariel glided into the room, approaching me to see if I had any serious injuries. "I'm sorry," She whispered. "I didn't think we'd get caught." Slowly she just stopped attending to me, the look on her face miserable. "Riku..?" I addressed her with my eyes. "Can I come with you?"

"Ariel..."

"I don't want to stay in this place anymore!" She threw her arms around me, clinging for dear life just to make sure she _could_ join me when I moved on. "I want to see other worlds, Riku. Take me!"

"I can't," I mumbled. She gasped, demanding to know why, and I pushed her away. "I can't! Ariel," She must've been crying - the look on her face was torture. "I'm going to be chasing that boy on my journey, y'know? You could get seriously hurt if you came with me." I stood up. "And how would your father feel if his daughter just disappeared?" With that, I swam past her. "I have to go, Ariel. Thank you for everything." Through the seaweed and out the castle I swam, heading for where I recalled the gummi ship to have been left behind.

I felt guilty to just not be able to repay her by bringing her with, but then I thought about how I'd even get her out of the water and walking around. Would she change like I did for every world we encounter together? Either way, it was too risky to give back.

The shadow of the gummi ship wobbled on the surface of the water like an X on a map, calling to me as the final destination. I was almost to the top when I heard a deeply accented voice blaring after me.

"Wait, mahn! Wait a minute!" I spun around, expecting to see a merman coming toward me, but what I found was just a small red speck with claws and huge white eyes skittering as fast as his short arms could pull him. I leaned closer to address what was a crab and he sighed to catch his breath before carrying on. "R-Riku, right, mahn?" I nodded. "Is Ariel wit' joo?"

"Ariel?" I echoed. "Why would Ariel be with me?"

"She... isn't?" He seemed shocked to have been wrong. I couldn't help but feel a bubble of worry trying to regurgitate itself. Just then the wailing and disturbing screeches of a yellow and blue-striped fish came flapping toward us as if his fin were set to flames.

"Sebastian! Sebastian!" He screams at him. "Ariel! Ariel went with Ursula!"

"That _sea witch!_" The crab hissed. "Oh, mahn! Dis is _baaaad_ news... We must tell his majesty!" He swung his arm around to snap off in a quick burst but two of my fingers put a stop to that.

"Wait!" The seafood looked at me as if I had lost my damned mind for demanding they desist for even a second. "I'll go after her first." My sense of nobility felt strange. I felt a sudden obligation to go and help Ariel, even though I had the underlying voice of apathy telling me it wasn't my concern. My heart wasn't sure how to breathe on this one but it was pounding awkwardly. As long as it was beating, I would follow it. "Show me the way!"

* * *

I just wanted to say... pretend from now on that Riku's keyblade is the "Way to Dawn". Okay? XD It's so much cooler and they're very similar anyway! Thanks, KH2! 

Question for readers: Do you think I do too many thoughts on Riku's part? I think it's like a Miyazaki complex I had going, where I like to take a moment to just stop and let silence happen or just calm thinking rather than ACTIONACTIONACTION. It just seems weird to have it all be... Action. I don't know. -.-

I want to be a famous fanfiction author someday, too. ;-;

And wow. Atlantica **PART ONE** was LOOOOONG. XD Watch Part two be like.. two paragraphs.

Also, please join the forums at khforums-dot-com. They belong to kh2-dot-co-dot-uk (Stupid and it's website extractor thingy.)and, personally, it's one of the better communities I've found myself in. I have some KHU exclusive fanfiction posted in the Creativity section. Go check them out if you like! And join the party!


End file.
